Electrification of Public Transport. A New Dawn for Kenya and Africa?

Jit Bhattacharya , co-founder and CEO of BasiGo recently discussed the electrification of public transportation in Kenya with AFYVA TV's Paul Olele . During the conversation, Mr Bhattacharya highlighted the environmental benefits of BasiGo's work in East Africa, and also explored the broader economic implications of electric mobility for Sub-Saharan African countries. Access the interview on YouTube here (for the specific section covered here jump to 12:01).

Nations in Sub Sahara Africa are currently facing economic challenges worsened by weakening currencies and the rising fossil fuel costs (Ghana, Zambia, Nigeria, Kenya just to mention a few).

But now what's happened with our business is that it's more than just about climate. Now it's about economic stability - Jit Bhattacharya

Here is the transcript of the conversation between Paul and Jit (brackets for emphasis from external sources)

Paul Olele: Are there any plans of expanding to neighboring East African countries, maybe West Africa, Southern African countries?

Mr Bhattacharya: Right now, what's so exciting about what we are doing in terms of electrifying public transport in Kenya is that replacing a single diesel bus in Nairobi, we're mitigating 50 tons of CO2 per year. That's greater marginal impact on CO2 emissions from an electric bus than almost anywhere else in the world.

So this is actually an area where Africa can lead in terms of climate mitigation, an area (Africa) that's often overlooked, right? Africa being such a low portion of global emissions, its often overlooked in terms of *(private) investments as a place to actually have a greater climate impact. So we're really excited about that.

*For example, of the $29.5 billion invested in African climate finance in 2020, only 14% was from private actors. This is significantly lower than comparable regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean (49%), East Asia and the Pacific (39%) and South Asia (37%) - African Development Bank

But now what's happened with our business is that it's more than just about climate. Now it's about economic stability. So in East Africa, one of the things that's been happening is that we import 100% of our diesel fuel, our gasoline, our kerosene to Kenya right now.

And with the way in which fuel prices have risen overseas with global oil prices, this has been the largest drain on foreign currency reserves in the country. And it's had a severe impact on our economy and on our currency. This is not just in Kenya, this is across the East African region.

Increase in import expenditure was largely on account of continued increase in imports of petroleum products, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total import bill in 2022 - KNBS 2023 Economic Survey

Meanwhile, we have this domestically generated source of electricity that's clean, that's renewable, that's abundant, and there's a *surplus at night. And so we're now talking about reducing dependence on imported petroleum and instead replacing it with domestically generated energy within the borders of Kenya.

*Energy curtailment occurs when demand falls below available generation as a measure to safeguard the power system. This curtailment is done between 0000hrs-0430hrs when demand is at its lowest while output from sources such as wind, solar and geothermal at its highest. In the period July 2021 to June 2022, 285.51 GWh of electrical energy was curtailed - EPRA Report For The Financial Year Ended 30th June 2022

And this is something that every African country is really eager to do. So many countries are currently dependent on imports of fuel. And so yes, absolutely.

When we prove this model in Kenya, once we have proven it in Kenya, we're really eager to take this to other African countries because the benefits are going to be the same. We do want to prioritize countries where the impact on CO2 emissions can be greatest.

But really what's great about East Africa is that the entire East African region has some of the cleanest electricity in the world.

Kenya leads at *90%, but the entire East African region has some of the cleanest electricity in the world. So the impact on CO2 emissions is great, regardless of what other East African country we go to. For the time being, we're very focused on East Africa.

*The electrical energy generated between July and December 2022 was 6,670.887 GWh. Geothermal provided the highest share of energy generated at 45.50% followed by Hydro and Wind at 21.80% and 17.22% respectively - EPRA Biannual Energy And Petroleum Statistics Report 2022/2023