Simba Group: We’re willing to support female tricycle riders

Simba Group, sole distributor of “TVS Keke”, a company manufacturing tricycles, says it has interest in encouraging female riders.

Manish Rohtagi, the company’s head of business, said this at a programme to commemorate Women’s Day.

He said over the years, the company has trained and empowered more than 5,000 mechanics across Nigeria and has also distributed 3,000 special tool-sets, which resulted in thousands of jobs.

According to Rohtagi,  the company decided to encourage women riders in order to create jobs for them and by extension support their families.

“Over the years, we’ve had few partnerships with the state governments of Delta, Abia, Ebonyi and Kaduna,” he said.

“When we went to the northern part of Nigeria, we had fears that women won’t be interested in riding tricycle as a means of sustenance but to our shock, we had few women who showed interest.

“A state governor is currently mobilising over 50 women riders for us. Our wish is that every state should have thousands of women riders, currently, we have less than 200 female riders all over the state.

“On our part, we’re prepared to support female riders by training them on how to ride and also giving discounts to them through our dealers.”

On insurance for women who may be involved in an accident, Rohtagi said the company in partnership with some dealers, usually take care of the tricycle so as to reduce the burden on the victim.