Counting the Cost: Chinese EV Tech and Affordable E-Mobility in Sierra Leone and Kenya

When Moses Sandy traveled to China with his prototype, he knew that Sierra Leone needed reliable and clean transport that could easily be powered not by gasoline but by the abundant energy harnessed from the sun.

In the heart of Freetown, Sandy’s prototype has become a game changer. It has made the city a little quieter with only the hum of the tricycle engines and the air a little less polluted since these e-tricycles, popularly known as Keke, do not emit harmful gases like gasoline does.

At the company’s garage, NEEV Salone also partners with other city players interested in moving Sierra Leone from fossil fuels to renewable energy in transport.

A few thousand miles away in Kenya, innovations in e-mobility are regular, with stakeholders pursuing a path that is new but driven by local needs like cost and reliability.

In this first episode of The Africa EV Show, NEEV Salone’s founder, Moses Sandy, and Kenya’s EV trends analyst at Continent Rising, Ian Musembi, join Njenga Hakeenah to discuss the EV adoption in Kenya and the West African country.

Show Notes:

• The Calabash Newspaper: NEEV Salone Introduces Sierra Leone’s First Electric Vehicles by Millicent Senava Mannah
• Business Daily: Tech advancements driving the uptake of e-mobility in Kenya by George Song’e
• UNEP: Sierra Leone electrifies three-wheelers to counter rising fuel prices, air pollution and climate change

About Moses Sandy and Ian Musembi:

Ian Musembi is a Mechanical Engineer dedicated to creating innovative solutions for a sustainable future. He is a writer and analyst of Africa’s e-mobility ecosystem and green energy at Continent Rising. He strives to make a positive impact through his work due to a firm belief in the power of technology to address environmental challenges and solve engineering problems.

Transcript:

Njenga Hakeenah: Hello and welcome to our very first edition of The Africa EV Show. I am Njenga Hakeenah in Nairobi. And before we get started today, I want to tell you how excited I am that we have launched this new show.

And it’s really because of you and the feedback that we are getting. For the past six months, I have been hosting a series on Chinese tech and how it is being used across Africa for electric motorbikes, tricycles, tractors, cars, and even buses like the ones we’ve got on the streets here in Nairobi. And the response on YouTube has been amazing.

Because of this interest, we thought, let’s get this conversation going to talk about all things electric vehicles in Africa. And now the most important thing this show is going to do for you, and why you should listen is that every week, I will be bringing in someone or some people who are in this space. And they’ll be bringing us interesting insights on their experiences and what they are feeling and experiencing about the African EV sector.

We’re going to talk about cars, we’re going to talk about bikes, we’re going to talk about buses, and the tech that powers them, the infrastructure needed for green mobility, and even the policies that African governments need to implement to get ready for this revolution that’s going to change a lot of us and how we get to get around. And today, I thought it would be a good idea to step back and look at the African EV market from a 10,000-meter distance and get a better view of where things are currently. So today, I am joined by some very amazing guys and you will get to hear about them in just a short bit. One is a founder and the other one is an analyst.

Ian Musembi is an e-mobility analyst based here in Nairobi. And Moses Sandy is the CEO of NEEV Salone in Sierra Leone and he joins us from Freetown.

Thank you both for taking the time to join us and for being our very first guests on this podcast. I know that African countries have very dynamic vehicle markets. And for a long time, these have been driven by second-hand vehicles.

And new EVs are now coming in. And the price points are something to watch in comparison to second-hand vehicles, which are ICE, engine vehicles. And I’ll start with you, Sandy. How is this dynamic playing out in Sierra Leone?

Sandy: Well, this dynamic has made a tremendous change in Sierra Leone. You can see people are willing and ready to accept this new technology and transformation. It’s just that we are still having some challenges, like the infrastructure, the policies, and some incentives, even though the government has been helpful.

So for us to make it more accessible to people, I think there are a lot of things that need to be done. 

Njenga: A lot of things need to be done. Ian Musembi, you have been analysing the EV space in Kenya. What he says is something probably that we also need to do. Or do you think in Kenya, we have to approach it differently?

Ian: I would say in Kenya, things are moving very fast in terms of e-mobility adoption. And that is in the case of two-wheelers.

And even in the regulatory space, right now, we have some significant EVs in the market. And maybe the thing which I would address in terms of the commercialisation and the penetration of the EV market. Majorly, it’s been focused in urban areas, but we are seeing some strides in the rural areas whereby they are integrating the EV infrastructure.

This is kind of the hen and the egg, which can come first. But with the adoption right now, I think we have made some significant strides. Yes.

Njenga: Nice. And I just want to follow up and ask, because you’ve mentioned how this is happening. How are the EVs shaping Kenya’s mobility market? And what are the solutions they are bringing to this country of ours? So this is, it makes some rounds.

Ian: I would say in terms of environmental sustainability, and maybe reducing the fuel dependency in terms of long-term savings. I would say they are getting some adoption majorly in the boda (motorbike) sector. That is maybe my friend in Sierra Leone, maybe you call them kekes.

And they are getting some traction in terms of their last mile deliveries. We can see them being adopted as some form of mobility because the two wheelers are majorly adopted in Africa. In comparison to cars, there are some huge numbers there.

So in terms of that, the integration in this sector, they are coming into the public transport whereby they are making it somehow sustainable and cost efficient. If I can look to my Uber app right now, the prices are much significant to have the comparison of the ICE and the electric adoption, and they are doing very well. And in terms of logistics and last mile deliveries, we can see a significant figure of companies and even the guys who are doing like the boda stuff and they are integrating this stuff on a higher end, we can see like networking, we can see public operations, we can see public entities, we can see like how the movement is going. And I see that as a significant adoption.

Njenga: Nice. And I think Sandy, you are the CEO and founder and you have to sell the kekes and the tuk-tuks. I don’t know if you call them the same, like we do here in Kenya. Having been in this space for the last two years, you said, how do you see it shaping up? 

Sandy: We have so much adoption in terms of two wheelers, but three wheelers are coming to, like they are gaining some traction. 

Ian: And if I can attest to that, we had some companies in the previous year, whereby we have some three wheelers being adopted. And maybe this is something which is very different from our case. And maybe in Sierra Leone, and I can see some traction in Tanzania as well, whereby they are like gaining some, they are adopting three wheelers.

And they have some different models, business models, compared to what we have.

Njenga: And I think for us in Kenya, the three wheelers were very common in the coastal city of Mombasa.

And then the two wheelers just happened when we had President Kibaki and he opened up the space. That is when the boda boda, the kekes came in. And so we come back to you, Sandy. How is the EV space shaping up in Sierra Leone? 

Sandy: Well, for now, first of all, let me go back to the previous question you asked. I’m not actually selling the kekes. I’m doing e-mobility. I’m employing vulnerable youth, young youth. They come to work for the company. We train them.

We do a training program. So and also for them to get any of our vehicles, which we refer to as the kekes, they need to meet a certain criteria, which is their license, police clearance and guarantor. So we give them these vehicles for them to run as transport.

Because what I’m trying to do here as a young investor and as a young innovation, I’m trying to change the transport sector in Sierra Leone for us to be able to reduce the carbon footprint, for us to be able to have a clean environment, a cleaner city, a conducive one. So we’ll be able to have a healthy population. As you know, the EV targets different sectors, like the health sector.

It also boosts the economy of the county. It’s able to reduce the burden on the government of importing fossil fuel. So this is some of the way it has helped shape the immobility market in Sierra Leone.

Njenga: All right. All right. So and I think there is a question that I will ask in terms of like, when you train them, and because I have seen some of your kekes, and I have seen some of your three wheelers, what do you do with them? Are you the one who owns them and you’re running them? Or what happens with this?

Sandy: I actually own them and I’m looking forward to having the plant here. So this is what I’ve been preaching and advocating to see how best I can have government funding, or maybe how I can have donor partners to come in and help because as you know, this is cost intensive. And I’m actually looking forward to make it accessible and affordable for every single union.

So for now, I have the idea. So like, I sketch my ideas. And I went to China because of the technology and the machinist idea.

I don’t have them here as what you’re seeing is my idea. So I came up with it because I want to make a transformation. I want to be able to, to have that legacy.

You understand me? So what I do with them, I hand them out as I am the owner. So I give large, now I’m talking about over 200 kekes, the tricycle and I have the motorbikes, but I’m looking forward for my government to help me with some policy changes because now they have just stopped the two wheels, not to enter the CBD area.

So for me, I think that if they will be able to make some policy changes for the EV bikes to be going in the city, not as the traditional ones, I think that will be one, one policy that will help this business to thrive. I think those are some of it.

Njenga: All right. And there is something that you have mentioned about China, and you had to go to China. And we know that China is the world’s manufacturing, you know, the world’s factory. And you came up with the prototypes, but you had to go and see if they could be done in China.

And so because we have that conversation a bit later on, I just want to ask about when you look at all the techs that we have, the Chinese, European, American, like Tesla, where do you put the Chinese tech in terms of like accessibility, in terms of affordability, in terms of every other aspect that you would consider as someone in this space who is building solutions for Sierra Leoneans?

Sandy: Well, that’s a very good one. I’ll say I’ll put the Chinese, the Chinese tech as a top notch, because I did some research before going to China. So I finally conclude, and because in China, what I want was accessible, and more cheaper, and more reliable.

So and for now, my own kekes, they are six-seaters, which means they are carrying six passengers. And once I charge the keke for one time, it lasts throughout the day, which means they started work at around 6am in the morning, and the off at around 8pm. So to be able to have that kind of technology, that kind of durability in the battery, because you know, the one major component in EV is the battery, right? And to be able to succeed in this business, you have to have a quality battery.

So China has been able to provide that technology for me, because I give them the specification I want. And in a bit, they were able to produce it for me as it’s cheaper compared to other countries like the Europeans. So I think China, the Chinese are making it a bit easier for us to be able to succeed in our vision.

Njenga: Alright. Thank you so much. And I come back to you, Ian because I want us to connect the affordability. And we know that EVs have been praised for their affordability. How do they compare in price to traditional international combustion engines, or whatever we call ICE vehicles in Kenya, considering our import dynamics? And do you think EVs are truly affordable for the average Kenyan consumer?

Ian: What I can say is that EVs are relatively cheaper in terms of, we all know about the dynamics, about the maintenance, they don’t have to undergo some like oil changes and all that.

But I will say they are not very much expensive, as the consumers believe. And I will say, maybe they (e-bikes) cost maybe like between $1,200 and $1,500. And here in Kenya, maybe I can attest, it is like more of less than 300,000 Kenyan shillings.

And what we have in EVs right now is that the companies and the financiers who are offering these products, they are very consumer-centric. And I will say, what is being witnessed is that actually, you have many channels of being profitable, in such that they connect you to maybe the pizza guys, they connect you to the delivery guys, and you have the instance whereby you have your own customers. And the ride-hailing companies have made this easier with the integration of technology.

And I will say, currently, in the Kenyan market, the people who are consuming, the consumers who are doing the EV options, they are coming at an instance of purchasing them when they are new. So the maintenance and the economics in the long run, it is making them much affordable. You have had instances whereby they are saving maybe between $5 and $10 in a day.

And that is very significant. When you compound the savings, which is coming from these guys, because maybe, like right now, the model which is being adopted is about the swapping stations. And the swapping stations are making it more affordable, because you will have to spend maybe like $2 to $2.5 for swapping for 24 hours so that you can commute, maybe between a single battery is going for like 70 kilometers and a double battery is going for 140 kilometers.

So having you spend like $2.5 instead of fueling it, fueling an ICE bike in continuous, continuous, continuous in this array of like, you have to have your customers, then you get back the money back to the fuel stations. And I think some of affordable things which are making it more affordable. And coming to you is the government is making some nice incentives.

We have been seeing these like across the African continent. And they are making it very reliable. So that’s like they are breaking down the import duties, import duties, VAT exemptions, and even the exercise duties.

And I see this is a very significant step that we are making, like across the continent. Maybe some, some countries are going like faster and others are following. But it’s, we have to hold them back so that we can have this all together.

Njenga: Nice. And I think Ethiopia has set the pace, because their policies on EVs are kind of unique. I think it’s the only African country, it was the first African country to fully say we are, we will no longer be importing ICE vehicles from, I think last year, right.

And then their policies are very favorable. And we are also seeing that a lot of manufacturing is heading into Ethiopia. And now this is leading us to the next question that we had, or the next point of conversation.

And I want to come back to Sandy, because you’ve spoken about assembling and you’ve spoken about building. Do you think that local assembly could be an option that impacts affordability and job creation, as well as the overall EV ecosystem? In Sierra Leone, are there plans to manufacture locally instead of just importing fully built units?

Sandy: Yes, that is my main objective. Because as we know, if we have the plant here, the manufacturing plant here, it will make it more accessible, more affordable, and it will be cheaper.

What I’m planning to do, I’m actually planning to, to build them here. So I’ll be just be importing few components. So that will actually make it cheaper for someone to come get their electric vehicle from Sierra Leone.

The transport sector is one important one in Sierra Leone, because they are using a chunk of our foreign reserve to import the traditional fuel. So if we have the manufacturing plant here, I think that will be able to reduce, you know, the amount the government is using to import fuel. And it will create more jobs, as it will introduce new markets, like the charging station, it will, you know, provide an able environment for new skill, and new businesses.

So I think that will impact the economy, and also it will impact the health sector. And it will reduce carbon footprint in Sierra Leone, it will also reduce noise pollution. And I think it will also make our county more cleaner and greener.

And it will help the government to be able to showcase itself on the international stage.

Njenga: Nice. And because you’ve spoken about skilling, and I know there are trainings for mechanics and other people who take care of these EVs, but I want to ask, for first time EV buyers, are there like of trainings or workshops to bring them in to this space? I know coming from, you know, driving an ICE vehicle, the dynamics are the same in terms of controlling the vehicle.

But for when I am buying an EV, the maintenance is different. You know, how I added the coolants and things like that. Are there trainings for first time EV buyers that you are experiencing where you are?

Sandy: Yes. First of all, what I do is that I train every one of them. So the first thing for you to obtain any of our vehicles, you need to undergo like a one week training. We are not only training them how to use the vehicle, but we are training them for the safety measures, you know, because as you know, it’s totally different from the ICE vehicle, just like you said.

So because for these ones, when the ignition is on, it has no sound. So we train them how to use it. We offer a maintenance program.

And also, I have trained technicians because I have some experts that came in to train some of my technicians. And I have technicians that I send to go train so that you will be able to maintenance and fix the day to day problem of these vehicles. 

Njenga: Nice. And Ian, I know in Kenya, we are carrying out several training workshops and sessions for mechanics. How do you kind of bring this together that the mechanics are trained and the buyers are trained? How do you think of this turning out? Because when you look at like what Sandy is mentioning, that I will start my car and it is silent, I’ll still be thinking, maybe this car has not started. The mechanics know how to maintain these things.

And for me as a driver or a buyer, I still am stuck on my ICE engine. So how important do you think these are? And are there those that are available for drivers specifically in Kenya?

Ian: What I can say is that when you are adopting a new technology, you have to learn the basics and the telematics on everything about the new technology. And what is being offered right now, maybe you’ll book a free test drive, whereby you will be educated about how you can maneuver the maintenance and maybe it cannot last long.

Maybe Sandy has mentioned a week. But currently we have some training, and they are driving the eagerness of the consumers about safety measures, about how you can handle the vehicle, and how you can maintain it at the same stance. The upskilling and everything, it is not much for us to accelerate the adoption, it is not much of how we are training the consumers, it is how much we are prepared to have the mechanics and have like significant players and people, the personnel about the charging infrastructure, how can you set it up? How can you maneuver around? How can you do along with the AI and everything which is coming along? And I will say, like, currently in Kenya, we have a significant partner who is currently doing it not one or two, but several training, like getting you to have the know-how, and also how to maintain your vehicle.

And also encouraging like the youth to come along and embrace this because this is a new technology, which should impact them like in the future. And what I usually say, like we are driving like in the greener future, which is about the having a compact transportation and all the stakeholders coming along and driving this revolution.

Njenga: Nice. And I want to combine those, your responses, both of you, with maintenance and technical support from trained mechanics. And what I have seen is that many buyers, many EV buyers are concerned about maintenance. And for Sandy and for you, Ian, for the companies that are coming to play.

So for the companies, Sandy, we know that he has a company, so he will tell us about how he’s ensuring that the spare parts and technical support is available. But in Kenya, we know there are other things that come into play. But let’s start with Sandy, and he can tell us how he’s ensuring that his customers will be happy by finding these spare parts and the technical support that they really need.

Sandy: So, first of all, I’m here to stay. The main reason why I named the company NEEV Salone, I named it after my county, is for them to be able to build that assurance that we are here. This is Sierra Leone, this is ours.

So stakeholders and everybody needs to come on board to make this a success. So first of all, what I do is to ensure the smooth running of the vehicles. So for them to be able to run smooth, that is why, before I started this, as I told you, I’ve been around for two years.

But for my first year, I was just doing the prototype and doing the test within the terrain. So I will tell you that my vehicles are built for this terrain. So I first did my prototype and I did some research and testing.

You know, I test the in and out and the hills because my county is surrounded by hills. So I designed my vehicle to be able to navigate through every road in Sierra Leone. So that’s why people are finding my vehicle more reliable, more efficient, and more smooth.

Njenga: For you, Ian, what do you think about what he’s saying? And is it something that we have in Kenya or we are yet to get to that point?

Ian: From Sandy’s perspective is that the Sierra Leone government is very occupied, it is very undergoing this stuff about electric modification and adoption.

So, I would say like in the larger part of the continent, the private companies are doing it much faster. And they are integrating themselves even in the OEMs and even the charging infrastructure. And we can see some very private partnerships.

And I will say that like the Chinese government and the bridges and the roads which they adopted here in Africa, they are still pushing it harder so that we can have a modified transportation system. And I would say even more of our cakes and our border borders and our three-wheelers, most of the design maybe it is currently done here in Africa. And because of the limitation of technology and expertise, we are shipping them either to India or China so that they can adopt them to the physical equivalent of our ideas.

And they are doing it very well, adopting our style because Africans should solve their own problems because we know about the trains and everything. And we know maybe the scooter will do better in the urban areas and maybe in the rural areas it will be very different. So, they are escalating the EV transition here in Africa.

And also to back it up, it’s maybe because like almost 50% of battery manufacturing processes which like it’s the drivetrain of e-mobility of EVs, the prices have come down. The same case we saw about the solar panels, it is being implemented as in like we have to go hand in hand with energy transition because we call them new energy vehicles. So, it is being replicated along.

We have the CATL, we have the BYD coming into place, we have the significant players of the technology. So, I would say we have to come into a par maybe like integrating the ideologies about moving forward because maybe a certain company maybe in the US or in Europe or in Asia is emitting some CO2s and sulfur dioxide. That will impact us as Africans.

So, we have to join our hands and reduce the emissions because that is what this is all about. All right. So, the training and the maintenance is across energy generation and then the people who maintain, the mechanics who maintain these EVs as well as the owners.

Njenga: So, we are moving on to the next one which is on the EV charging infrastructure. And many people have expressed concern about the availability of this infrastructure that unless I have a charger at home, then if I travel some distance whereby maybe there is no home close by or a charging station somewhere, then I may have to have my vehicle towed. So, when it comes to charging infrastructure, how are stakeholders collaborating in Sierra Leone to build this, bearing in mind that you are one of the main ones because when you are building an end product, you are also thinking how to keep running it.

Sandy: Yes. Actually, in Sierra Leone, I would say the government has been supportive because working with EPA, I have a partnership with them. I was able to secure a grant from Solution Plus to have my first charging stations.

So, but for now, my daily reach out to the government and stakeholders is for them to come on board to be able to build more charging stations as this is the main challenge in owning an EV company because that will give confidence to the end users. At least, it will get them off that stress to be thinking how they can charge their vehicles as we still have a large challenge in our country. So, for me, I do my charging to a solar plant, which was a grant given to me by Solution Plus.

So, what I did, the actual requirement for the station was 20 kilowatts, but I brought in a 100 plus kVA solar plant, which I’m using to charge my vehicles, but that is not enough as I’m looking to expand, you know, because if you are preaching greener solutions to people, you are not only targeting the city, you want to be able to move across the country, the provinces, the urban areas, you know. So, to be able to make this a success, I need the government to come on board all hands on deck because one of my proposals to the government is for them to see how they can partner with me to be getting vehicles for me. Yes, and I feel the Sierra Leone government is doing so much on EV in the western area.

Kenya is the hub of this. No, actually, my government is doing well because they helped me with some incentives for my first order. They gave me a duty-free concession to the Ministry of Environment, and it was all the idea by the EPA and also the Ministry of Finance.

They support me so well. The Minister of Transport, in fact, there were some policies changed just for my sake because they were banned on the kekes not to use Wilkinson Road, which is one of our main roads in Sierra Leone. But for me, there was some exception made by the IG of the Sierra Leone Police. So, I now have a partnership with them. They also do training for my riders, like what to do, what not to do, road safety, you know, where they should park, where they should not park, how they should maintain law and order. So, I think my government is serious about transforming the transport sector, but I want to see them do more because, as I told you before, this is more cash intensive.

I cannot do it alone. Even though I have the idea, I have the expertise, but I need them to come on board to support me because, you know, this takes a lot of money, time, but I also am doing a proposal now because my government should be able to do what they are preaching. So, if we are serious about renewable energy, I’m looking forward of how they could partner with me to be getting some of my vehicle or to say, okay, Mr. Sandy, can you provide us with some hybrids, the ones that uses fuel and charge at the same time? So, let’s say for people that are in town, they will use the charging if they want to go to the provinces and then they will use fuel and that will make it cheaper for the government and those savings they are making, they will use it in some other sectors or use it to develop some other areas because I did some research.

Last year, we used at about $5.7 million just on importation on fuel. No, $500 million dollars. 

Njenga: Wow, that’s a huge amount of money getting out of the Sierra Leonean economy and just going to, you know, the oil industry.

Now, of course, when it goes out, it comes back repackaged and then a premium. And then, Ian, if you compare what Sandy is talking about and what we have in Kenya, are we at par or do we need more to be done?

Ian: From my knowledge, I understand Kenya is a very huge adopter of technology and coming at par about e-mobility, there are some significant strides which are being made. We can say we have a draft policy which is going to be out very soon.

We also have some regulations about the charging stations about 50 meters along the highways. And also, I would say, like recently in January, there was a proposal. How can we define more about the completely knocked units? And we are, if you can compare East Africa with what Ethiopians are doing and what Rwanda is doing, there are some significant strides.

Because I know about the entities, maybe the utility company of electricity in Kenya, KPLC, is doing some significant strides in creating awareness and electrifying their fleet and setting up charging infrastructure. And I know if this can be scalable, it will have a huge impact. Because actually in Kenya, we spend a lot on oil importations and petrol and diesel and everything.

And the fluctuation in the oil and gas industry is very, like, it’s global. But what we can do is electrify our fleet with the demand and the production of our electricity. Because I don’t know much about Sierra Leone, but I can attest that 90% of our electricity is renewable.

And it’s not all about championing the electrification process. If you do the electrification on other fuels, which are not sustainable, you’re not making a huge impact. It can be profitable, but not much about the environment.

Because we have been seeing wildfires. And this is something which the strategy about immobility is coming to rectify or to pick some solution in that.

Njenga: Nice. And we cannot end this conversation without talking about the role of Chinese EV tech in future transportation solutions in our countries. And when you look at what you see, or when you look at the sector in Sierra Leone, Sandy, and when you look at Kenya’s transportation future, Ian, are there specific local innovations or policies that could accelerate EVs adoption in consideration of the role of Chinese EV tech in this country?

Ian: Yes, yes. And actually, I can attest that almost some significant percentage above 50 and beyond is from Chinese tech.

Because like, right now, we can see BYD buses roaming around. And they have come to make some impact about the public transportation. And at the same time, we can see even our major, you see, like in Africa, we don’t have the manufacturing capabilities and the tech and the assembly lines.

So we are borrowing from the giants who have piloted and done this before. So I would say the Chinese technology is doing very far much, not very far much beyond, but very significant strides in terms of the energy, because we are relying on energy to support our infrastructure about electrification of our vehicles. And also the charging infrastructure, they are doing very good.

And also the technology about the cars and everything. And what I can say, maybe we can build our capacities about the training and upskilling of our youths and the counterparts and the stakeholders, so that maybe we can have like agreements or bilateral ties maybe with some companies, so that they can help us elevate our skills so that we can match what is needed by the market right now. Yeah, absolutely.

Njenga: I think what I am getting from you is that African countries have to collaborate. We cannot continue working in isolation, saying, you know, Congo is the richest in, you know, lithium and cobalt. No, Zimbabwe has lithium. Congo has cobalt and manganese and all these other metals. And then we cannot continue, just continue saying, you know, we are rich in resources, but we cannot add value to these resources. 

Ian Musembi is a Mechanical Engineer and an e-mobility analyst in Nairobi and Moses Sandy is the CEO of NEEV Salone in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Ian and Sandy, thank you both for taking the time to join us today.

Outro: And thank you for listening to our first episode.

This is your show, so let me know what you want us to focus on when it comes to EVs in Africa. My email address is in the show notes, so don’t hesitate to reach out. And of course, you can check everything else out that we are doing at the China Global South project by going to our website, www.chinaglobalsouth.com. I’ll be back next week with another edition of the Africa EV show. Until then, thanks so much for listening and stay safe.