BASIGO DRIVING PUBLIC TRANSPORT SECTOR IN KENYA TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY
By Alphonce Okoth
I
n East Africa, an early-stage start-up is daring to revolutionise Africa’s public transport sector which is still dominated by diesel driven engine buses. Starting with 2 state-of-the-art electric buses, the startup led by founder and CEO Jit Bhattacharya is on a mission to make e-mobility the preferred public mode of transportation in African cities, starting with the green city under the sun, Nairobi. “We are in business to have massive and rapid impact on climate change and on-air quality here in East Africa,” Jit tells CEO Business African team. “If this can work, we can take this to other cities and other commercial vehicles.”
C CLEARER SKIES VALIDATE BUSINESS MODEL
The original idea to establish BasiGo came from the fact that East Africa has some of the cleanest and most affordable electricity in the world. Kenya produces over 70% of its electricity from renewable energy sources such as hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind. Jit explains that electrifying more parts of the economy would thus have more impact here than anywhere else on the planet where renewable energy still accounts for a small portion of total electricity produced. Starting out in Nairobi also had a strong business case since over 40% of commuters in the city with over 4 million inhabitants relied on public transport. With oil prices sky rocketing, an electric bus would also cost owners less to operate when compared to diesel engines. Nairobi may have presented a strong business for Jit, a serial entrepreneur with over 12 years in clean energy, but the early days of the pandemic put into clearer focus why Jit and his partner 34 CEO BUSINESS AFRICA
JUNE 2022
Jonathan Green were willing to invest their time and money into the business. “During the very first few days of the pandemic, an interesting thing happened in Nairobi where for a period of days, public transport was stopped and in a matter of days, the air quality had improved. The sky became so clear that on a good morning you could see Mount Kenya and a glimpse of Mount Kilimanjaro which is hundreds of kilometres away from the city. This gave us a preview of what would happen if we finally get a handle of the problem.”
QUALITY BUSES COMFORT BOTH PASSENGERS AND ENVIRONMENT
Apart from being emission free BasiGo buses offer commuters a level of comfort that they have never experienced when using traditional diesel-powered buses which have been the hall mark of the Matatu industry for decades. “This is a modern state of the art electric bus that is really beyond just being electric: it represents the future of what commuting and public transit should be like,” Jit boasts. To make the bus a reality, BasiGo partnered with BYD, the largest manufacturer of electric busses in the world. “They are an incredible partner. Their buses are currently operating in 50 countries spread across 300 cities around the world,” Jit says. “We are bringing this state of the technology here to East Africa. But tailoring it to make sure it can work on our roads and in our use conditions.” He tells us that many people who have had the chance to board the bus have always been taken aback by the level of quality they are met with. Can I afford this? Do I deserve this? Are some of the first questions that passengers boarding the BasiGo electric bus first ask themselves. To WWW.CEOBUSINESSAFRICA.COM
