Unenforced, unaffordable, unsafe: a systemic failure putting millions of riders at risk

A regional webinar brought together clinicians, regulators, International agencies, NGO advocates and private-sector leaders to confront a stark truth: across Africa, the motorbike boom is outpacing the safety measures that could save lives.

KEY FIGURES

6×  better chance of surviving a crash with a quality helmet, properly worn

50M  motorcycles projected across Africa by 2030, up from 7M 15 years ago

3×  more likely, PTWs are involved in road deaths in Rwanda vs. other vehicles

Somewhere between the factory floor and the roadside vendor, a life-saving helmet becomes unaffordable. Import tariffs, certification hurdles, and supply-chain markups conspire to price certified helmets out of reach for the very riders who need them most. That uncomfortable reality sat at the centre of last week’s regional webinar on helmet safety, hosted by Healthy People Rwanda (HPR) and the FIA Foundation under the Tuwurinde initiative.

For Dr. Innocent Nzeyimana, President of Healthy People Rwanda, the webinar was about more than a progress report. “This webinar is more than just a platform for discussion. It is an opportunity to exchange ideas, share best practices, and call for urgent action to better protect motorcyclists.” 

While significant gaps remain, countries such as Benin and Rwanda are leading the way with notable motorcycle helmet safety initiatives. Their representatives shared valuable experiences and lessons learned from implementing programs and policies already underway on the ground.

It is not rider behaviour. It is the system.

Lotte Brondum, Executive Director of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety set the tone for the whole session. The assumption that helmet non-use is a personal failing, a choice made by reckless or uninformed riders, is wrong. Evidence from the Alliance’s safe helmet work points elsewhere: the failures are systemic.

The first barrier is market governance. Helmet-wearing laws exist across the region, but enforcement stops at the rider, is he wearing one? Rather than at the retailer: is the helmet for sale one that will actually protect? The result is predictable: substandard products fill ordinary retail channels because nobody in the supply chain is accountable for removing them.

The second barrier is cost. Import tariffs, certification requirements, market markups, until a safe helmet sits well beyond what a rider can afford.“If a person cannot afford to be safe, the system is failing them. No one should have to choose between the cost of a helmet and the safety of their life.”she said

Shanton Ngabire, Head of Commercial at Spiro, an electric vehicle company, brought a private sector perspective to the conversation. He flagged two practical barriers slowing progress: helmet testing time that stretch up to 30 days and taxation that drives up the final price of helmets for riders. His suggestion was regional in scope, harmonising standardisation policies across countries would simplify the process for manufacturers and, in turn, bring helmet prices down to a level that more riders can afford.

Fifty million motorcycles. One low-hanging solution.

Kate Turner, Media and Advocacy Manager at the FIA Foundation, grounded the conversation in numbers that are hard to ignore. Around 15 years ago, there were roughly 7 million motorcycles on the African continent. By 2030, there will be more than 50 million.

“The speed at which two-wheelers have taken over the region is extraordinary. And with those numbers, we see motorcycle injuries rising” she noted

She was equally clear about what Rwanda’s experience has proven: data is not a bureaucratic nicety, it is the foundation of every credible argument for change. “There is no way to know where we’re going if we don’t know where we are, and we don’t know how we got there.”

Tuwurinde milestones at a glance

Tuwurinde, meaning “Let’s Protect Our Head” in Kinyarwanda, is a multi-stakeholder road safety programme that has already notched up concrete wins in Rwanda:

Africa’s first helmet testing lab

On December 11, 2024, Rwanda marked a historic milestone in road safety with the inauguration of Africa’s first-ever Helmet Testing Laboratory, giving Rwanda independent quality testing capacity. Beyond the lab, Rwanda also developed its own helmet standard and certification framework, a foundation that others in the region can learn from and build on. 

8,000+ motorcyclists reached

Nationwide awareness campaigns rolled out across Kigali and four secondary cities, putting helmet standards in front of riders directly.

22 people trained across institutions

Capacity-building across the Rwanda Standards Board, the Rwanda Inspectorate and Competition Authority, the Rwanda National Police and the University of Rwanda, on testing methods and enforcement protocols.

These are not just numbers. They represent a replicable model: set a standard, test against it, train the people who enforce it, and tell the public what to look for. The conversation at the webinar was less about whether the model works and more about the pace at which other countries are willing to adopt it.

A quality helmet, properly worn, improves the chance of surviving a crash by six times and cuts the risk of serious head injury by more than 70 percent. That number is not in dispute. What is in dispute, and what the Tuwurinde initiative exists to resolve, is why, given everything we know, safe helmets remain so hard to find and so expensive to buy across much of the continent.