Are Africa’s EV firms ready for carbon credits?

October 20, 2025

Dear subscriber, with a funding drought hitting Africa’s EV companies, a promising new source of cash is emerging. Meanwhile, amid a tight squeeze by asset lenders, banks are extending their arm to EV buyers. Enjoy today’s read! Regards, Brian Ambani. 

Electric motorcycle company Spiro has signed a deal with Dutch firm Zeroca to collect and sell carbon credits in Kenya and Nigeria. Zeroca develops and aggregates carbon credit programs for electric mobility projects. It handles the entire carbon credit lifecycle, from development and registration to validation and issuance, and sells them on global compliance markets. 

  • A model calculation on the Zeroca website shows that aggregating credits for 35,000 electric motorcycles could generate $2.1 million in revenue annually for offsetting nearly 70,000 tons of CO2. 

  • EV companies in Africa generally fund growth with expensive debt and equity. Dipping into the carbon market would enable them to unlock a new and attractive source of capital.  

  • Our take: Africa needs its own aggregator companies that will enable individual EV owners and companies to pool their credits… Read more (2 min)

Stanbic IBTC, a mid-sized Nigerian bank, has entered into a partnership with Loxea Nigeria, the distributor of BYD electric and hybrid vehicles, for vehicle financing.The company says customers will benefit from discounted EV prices and lower interest charges. BYD entered the Nigerian market in March 2025, introducing the Atto 3 and the Dolphin models. 

  • Stanbic IBTC’s move reflects a growing trend of African banks supporting electric four-wheeler financing. It highlights how financial institutions are becoming key enablers of the continent’s green mobility transition.

  • Asset financiers like Watu Credit, M-Kopa and Mogo focus on two- and three-wheelers, which are cheaper and attract low-income riders. They use digital payments and tracking to offer flexible loans that banks avoid.

  • Our take: Banks are becoming the gateway for four-wheeler EV adoption, opening doors for OEMs to scale in key markets… Read more (2 min)

A third of Greenwheels Africa’s senior employees joined in the past 12 months, making it one of Africa’s fastest-growing electric vehicle companies. The Kenya-based EV fleet management firm had 73 senior staff listed on LinkedIn, according to an analysis by Mobility Rising, with 24 joining in the past one year. More are set to join, with the firm recently announcing new open roles.

  • Greenwheels is one of Africa’s top EV companies based on the number of senior employees. It provides electric motorcycle passenger and cargo hailing services on an hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis or per kilometre. 

  • Out of the 25 top African EV companies we analysed, Greenwheel’s senior employee growth was the eighth largest. This was only behind Tesla, Spiro, Ampersand, Kiira Motors Corporation, Gogo Electric, BasiGo and BYD. 

  • Our take: With its traction in Kenya, entry into other East African markets should be in Greenwheels’ future… Read more (2 min)

Edward Makwana, Forbes EV writer, explores the performance of Leapmotor C10 REEV

Events

📆 Register for Automechanika Expo in South Africa (Oct 28)

📆 Join EV experts at the E-Mobility and Infrastructure Africa Summit in Kenya (Nov 26)

📆 Book a slot at the Africa EVs Expo in Kenya (Dec 4)

Jobs

🗣️ Join Zimi as a Marketing Coordinator (South Africa)

💼 Become a Corporate Acquisitions Sales Lead at Shift EV (Egypt)

👩🏻‍💼 Apply for Inventory Lead’s role at M-Kopa (Kenya)

Various 

⚡ Blue EV deploys 120+ swapping stations in Egypt

🕍 LOBO EV Technologies to establish headquarters in Ghana

🔌 Inside Ethiopia’s aggressive EV revolution

Seen on LinkedIn 

Romeo Koduah, Head of Communications at RCEES, says, “Securing finance (through grants and credit), building robust infrastructure (encompassing energy and logistics), and enhancing technical capacity (in technology and human resources) address climate change but also present a strategic avenue for Africa to leapfrog industrialisation by forging regional value chains in the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem.”