Kenya gets $378 million EU loan to roll out electric BRT system

Following a meeting between Kenya's President, William Ruto, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von de Leyen, the EU says its loaning $378 million to finance the electrification of Kenya's public transportation system.

In 2019, Kenya reduced the import duty for fully electric vehicles. The following year, the government released a strategy to increase the adoption of EVs, especially on the country's bus rapid transit line 3 (BRT 3).

Kenya Power previously announced its plan to build a nationwide network of public charging points, removing one of the hurdles for use of electric cars in Kenya.

However, due to a lack of funding the implementation has been slow. This EU loan will enable the Kenyan government to drive its zero-emission agenda. Currently, only about 350 of Kenya's 2.2 million cars are electric, this number will possibly increase in the coming months.

Last year, BasiGo, a Kenyan cleantech startup raised a $4.3 million seed to kick off an Electric Vehicles (EV) assembly plant in Nairobi and to launch the sales and delivery of its electric buses.

Over the next five years, BasiGo says it intends to deploy over 1,000 mass transit electric buses to transport operators in Nairobi. Currently, the startup has a charging and servicing depot at Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

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Aside from BasiGo, Opibus, Kiri, Nopea Ride, EVM Africa, Caetano, and Agilitee Africa are some of the cleantech companies pushing for the use of EVs in the East African country.

Kenya's BRT will only be operated by green (electric, hybrid and biodiesel) vehicles, presenting a great business opportunity for EV manufacturers like Opibus and assemblers like BasiGo.