advertisement
BasiGo Secures $5M Funding
Electric vehicle startup BasiGo has secured $5 million in debt funding British International Investment’s Climate Innovation Facility to scale up local assembly of electric buses in Kenya.
The facility will go towards the manufacture of 100 electric buses – in Kenya – that will meet Kenyan’s demand for affordable but clean public transport.
BasiGo said, “This debt facility is the first of its kind supporting the electrification of the public transport sector in sub-Saharan Africa. Having received over 350 reservations from matatu operators in Nairobi, the support of BII will be instrumental in helping us meet the rapidly growing demand for electric buses in Kenya.”
advertisement
British International Investment (BII) is the UK’s development finance institution and an investment partner to businesses in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. It invests to support the UK Government’s Clean Green Initiative and to create productive, sustainable, and inclusive economies in eligible markets. Between 2022-2026, at least 30 percent of BII’s total new commitments by value will be in climate finance.
BII also announced a combined $2.6m carbon credit pilot investment with Shell Foundation into SunCulture – a Kenya-based company that provides solar-powered irrigation systems to smallholder farmers – to scale the supply of solar and water-efficient irrigation in Kenya.
British High Commissioner to Kenya, Neil Wigan, said, “It is a sign of the strength of the UK-Kenya Strategic Partnership that these three projects have reached new milestones by COP28. The UK and Kenya are going far and going together. We are proud to support the President’s Africa Green Industrialisation Initiative (AGII). Combined with these investments from British International Investment, the UK and Kenya will deliver what Kenya’s people want – growth, jobs and trade – in a way that is sustainable and protects our planet”.
advertisement
On Monday, Kenyan President William Ruto launched the AGII at the COP28, which aims to accelerate and scale green industries and businesses across Africa, promote climate mitigation and adaptation, and catalyse economic green growth on the continent.
The initiative aims to create and implement a new economic narrative for the continent and its role in global trade, develop a full value-chain of activities and sectors to drive continent’s green industrialisation, and launch regional partnerships and consortium of collaborations to implement it.