Ampersand Collaborates With Bboxx to Transform its e-Mobility Scheme

Ampersand, an e-mobility provider of sustainable transportation solutions in East Africa, and Bboxx, a platform that facilitates access to vital goods and services, collaborate to expand Ampersand’s e-mobility program in Rwanda.

The program is now being implemented in Kigali, Africa’s greenest city, after a successful initial experiment in the nation. Over the next few years, tens of thousands of e-motos (electric motorcycles) will be provided to taxi drivers in Rwanda.

The financing of the e-motos will be provided by Bboxx using its special asset financing AI model, and mobile payments will be handled by Bboxx’s Pulse, a fully integrated operating system that streamlines Bboxx’s business operations. The e-motos and battery changes will be provided by Ampersand.

The trial is intended to give taxi drivers in the Capital the option of using motorbikes for their business operations at a lower daily cost than with fuel vehicles, an alternative that, according to Ampersand’s data, might prove to be 40% more profitable.

Because existing moto taxis are currently the second-largest emitters of CO2, accounting for 32% of all emissions from road traffic, the partnership will assist Rwanda in achieving the nation’s goals of reducing 4.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2030 and becoming a carbon-neutral economy by 2050.

With their combined efforts, the partners want to eventually see millions of e-motos on African roads, bringing much-needed clean mobility options to the continent’s fast growing metropolitan centers.

A long-term approach to promoting sustainable transportation in Africa

Africa’s population is expected to double to 2.5 billion by 2050, with 950 million more people living in cities. As a result, the continent is becoming more urbanized. Cities who are still underserved in this area will need to make significant improvements in their transportation systems.

With an estimated 5 million in circulation, motorbikes already account for a sizeable portion of traffic on East African roadways due to their cheap overall ownership costs, including upfront expenses and fuel consumption. Furthermore, 90% of motorcycle purchases in Sub-Saharan Africa are made for business purposes, with many owners using the vehicles for delivery and taxi services.

In several African countries, the cost of gasoline has doubled in a year due to the energy crisis, prompting drivers to reevaluate the viability of their livelihoods. Due to this, electric motorcycles (EVs), despite having a somewhat greater upfront cost than motorcycles powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs), are now a more appealing option because they are cheaper to operate right away.

By 2040, sales of all motorcycles in this market are expected to be between 50 and 70 percent electric, or over 4 million e-motos annually. This growth trend will be supported by the collaboration between Bboxx and Ampersand, which will offer a network of motorcycles with a Pay-as-you-Drive system that is available via mobile money.

With the hope that EVs would exceed internal combustion engines to replace ICE vehicles as the primary mode of transportation in the future, such a system will present business opportunities for nearby towns employing eco-friendly and sustainable technologies.

“This is an amazing opportunity for Bboxx, and we are happy to be cooperating with a like-minded firm like as Ampersand to extend access to sustainable mobility throughout Africa,” said Mansoor Hamayun, CEO and Co-Founder of Bboxx. It’s wonderful that we have now reached this milestone because e-mobility has been a key business priority area that we have been looking to enter for some time. Ampersand has thus far demonstrated excellent innovation in their business, but more significantly, we share the same fundamental objectives of improving lives and releasing potential in our effort to achieve all of the SDGs set forth by the UN.

Josh Whale, CEO of Ampersand, said: “Electrifying African transport will take everyone doing what they do best. Bboxx brings the e-mobility revolution decades of experience in bringing pay-as-you-go financing to Rwandans at scale and brings a different choice and approach to the financing options available to our customers. Over half of all East Africa’s road traffic is made up of motorbike taxis, providing a vital and affordable public transport service and source of employment in both urban and rural areas. And nearly all motorbike taxi drivers require financing to acquire their vehicles, and our electric motorbikes are no exception. We’re also excited by Bboxx’s deep experience in structuring financing instruments in smart ways to tap into international capital markets, including the growing wave of climate capital. All this frees up Ampersand to focus on what we do best: Building batteries, expanding our swap network, building software, and building motorbikes – and doing all of this more and better every year. With strategic partnerships like this collaboration with Bboxx, we can help Rwanda to become the world’s first country to electrify more than half their entire road traffic, closely followed by other African countries, and ahead of countries like Norway.”

The first and best complete electric motorbike and transportation energy solution in Africa is called Ampersand. Since they began doing business in Rwanda about five years ago, they have given Kigali access to hundreds of e-motos, as well as swap stations and charging infrastructure, and they have also expanded their network to include Nairobi in the neighboring Kenya.

This is Bboxx’s most recent entry into a new business market, offering a variety of necessary clean and sustainable goods and services. Bboxx already offers solar energy household systems, eco-friendly kitchenware, and solar-powered water pumps. Bboxx Pulse is used to oversee the company’s operations.