By Aisha Tamba
One of the few female taxi drivers in the country, Bintou Saho has encouraged women to venture into the taxi business.
“I want to encourage my fellow women to not be discouraged to come into the taxi business. Taxi driving is not just men’s job only. Women must have confidence and believe in their own ability. The most important thing is to earn clean money,” she told The Standard in an exclusive interview.
The 28-year-old driver is also a soldier and she said every day after work from the barracks, she would jump into her taxi to hit the traffic until late evening.
“On a good day, I make about D800 which in a month can score between D12,000 to D15,000. But I love both being a taxi driver and a soldier,” the Lance Corporal told The Standard.
“When people board my cab, they tend to be very surprised. Some will be laughing at me but I don’t pay any attention to that because what I am doing is what is important and nobody can discourage me. Just recently, another taxi driver, who is a man at the Turntable, looked at me and asked how a woman is into taxi driving. I told him it’s fifty-fifty. Just as you go home and count your money, so do I,” Bintou said. “But most times too, people applaud me and encourage me to keep up the good work.”
