In a significant move for Africa’s clean mobility and climate-finance landscape, Spiro has entered a strategic partnership with Zeroca to accelerate the deployment of electric two-wheel transport solutions in Nigeria and Kenya — linking operational expansion with credible carbon-credit generation.
The Partnership at a Glance
Under the agreement, Spiro contributes its established electric-motorbike business model and battery-swapping network. Meanwhile, Zeroca brings carbon-market structuring, aggregation and high-integrity crediting capabilities. Together the companies aim to convert emissions reductions from electric-motorbike operations into premium carbon credits, thus creating a sustainable revenue stream and reinforcing the financial viability of e-mobility in Africa.
This collaboration centres initially on Nigeria and Kenya — two of Africa’s most dynamic markets for two-wheel transport and urban mobility. The logic is clear: these countries have large informal motorbike taxi sectors, a high potential for fossil-fuel substitution, and regulatory momentum around clean transport.
Why This Matters
Several elements make this deal noteworthy:
- Scale & impact: Spiro has already deployed tens of thousands of electric motorcycles and built one of the largest battery-swap networks across Africa. By aligning those operations with carbon-credit frameworks, the partnership aims to elevate the business model from being purely mobility-focused to climate-finance enabled.
- High-integrity carbon finance: Zeroca emphasises premium credits aligned with compliance markets — not generic offsets. The focus is on additionality, durable emissions reductions, robust monitoring and verification, and alignment with national climate goals. This high-quality approach helps combat concerns of “green-washing” that sometimes afflict carbon markets.
- Local benefits: Beyond emissions, the transport shift provides economic and social advantages. Riders gain access to lower‐cost electric bikes (versus petrol), less downtime via swapping, and lower operating costs. Urban areas benefit from reduced pollution and quieter transport. The partnership highlights these co-benefits.
The Operational Landscape in Nigeria & Kenya
Kenya: Spiro has a strong presence in Kenya, already positioning itself as a regional leader in e-mobility. Kenya’s urban population uses a large number of motorcycle taxis (known locally as “boda bodas”), presenting a substantial addressable market. The country also has a relatively clean electricity generation mix (over 90% renewables), which enhances the emissions-reduction case for electric transport.
Nigeria: Nigeria offers the largest population in Africa, with significant transport demand and heavy use of motorbikes (referred to as “okadas”). The potential for substitution of petrol bikes with electric alternatives is strong, though infrastructure and regulatory challenges remain. The partnership with Zeroca signals a push to address both fleet scale and financing.
In both markets, the battery-swap model that Spiro operates — where riders exchange depleted batteries for charged ones at dedicated stations — addresses crucial pain points: charging infrastructure limitations, rider downtime and upfront cost barriers.
Business Model & Financial Mechanisms
Spiro’s business model is multi-stream: bike sales (or leases), battery-as-a-service subscriptions, after-sales services, and data monetisation via licensing and analytics. The battery-swap network is central — offering affordable and scalable infrastructure that allows electric bikes to operate on par with petrol ones in terms of convenience and uptime.
With the Zeroca partnership, a new layer is added: the emissions reductions realised by replacing petrol bikes with electric ones become monetisable via carbon credits. These carbon revenues can help subsidise bike acquisition, lower cost of capital, improve pay-back for riders and fleet operators, and ultimately improve unit economics of e-mobility fleets.
Integrity & Governance
A key concern in emerging markets is ensuring that carbon credits truly represent real and additional emissions reductions. Zeroca’s role emphasises robust verification, transparent registries, baseline establishment, avoiding double-counting, and alignment with national climate frameworks (including Article 6 of the Paris Agreement).
Spiro will provide the operational data: swap station utilisation, kilometres travelled, energy consumed, battery lifecycle metrics, rider usage profiles. These data streams will underpin the carbon credit calculations and verification. This data-driven approach bolsters transparency and investor confidence.
Impact & Numbers
While exact numbers for the Nigeria/Kenya programme under the partnership are yet to be disclosed publicly, the pre-existing scale of Spiro offers perspective: as of mid-2025, Spiro had deployed over 35,000 electric motorbikes with over 20 million battery swaps, supporting over 500 million km of zero-emission travel and avoiding ~30,000 tons of CO₂ emissions across eight African countries.
With the new carbon-finance linkage, the expectation is that these figures will accelerate, potentially reaching hundreds of thousands of bikes and millions of carbon-credits annually in the coming years — especially if the Nigeria and Kenya programmes scale quickly.
Challenges & Risks
Though exciting, the partnership must navigate several challenges:
- Grid and infrastructure reliability: In many parts of Kenya and Nigeria, electricity supply can be inconsistent. Ensuring the battery-swap stations have reliable power (potentially backed by renewables/energy storage) is key.
- Regulatory frameworks: Supportive policies for e-mobility, import duties, battery regulations, carbon credit frameworks and transport sector regulation vary and are evolving.
- Behavioral change & market readiness: Convincing riders and fleet operators to switch from petrol bikes involves addressing perceptions of range, reliability, maintenance ecosystem and resale value.
- Upfront cost and capital intensity: While the long-term operating cost benefits are strong, the cost of establishing swap stations, managing battery lifecycle, and integrating renewable sources present capital challenges.
- Carbon credit market dynamics: Premium carbon credits demand high standards; markets for such credits may take time to mature. The ability to monetise the carbon revenue effectively and transparently will determine the financial impact.
Why This Partnership is a Template for Africa
The Spiro–Zeroca collaboration is important beyond just Nigeria and Kenya. It offers a replicable model for how e-mobility companies in Africa can link operational scale with climate-finance mechanisms to unlock new revenue streams, improve economics and accelerate adoption. Key elements that make it a template:
- Integrated solution: Vehicle + battery infrastructure + swap network + financing + carbon credits.
- Data-driven: Telematics and usage data support credibility and verification for climate impact.
- Local manufacturing and jobs: Spiro emphasises local assembly and job creation, which enhances socio-economic impact.
- Aligns with national goals: Kenya and Nigeria have climate ambitions; leveraging e-mobility supports those while offering commercial returns.
- Scalable sector: Two-wheel transport is massive in many African countries — converting a large segment to electric offers outsized impact.
What’s Next?
Over the next 12–24 months, key milestones to watch include:
- The number of bikes deployed in Nigeria and Kenya under the partnership.
- The launch of carbon-credit programmes and initial credit issuance.
- Financial models: how much carbon revenue flows to Spiro, to riders, and to infrastructure expansion.
- Regulatory developments in Kenya and Nigeria related to e-mobility, battery-swap infrastructure and carbon markets.
- Broader expansion: whether the model rolls into other African markets beyond Kenya & Nigeria.
Final Thoughts
The partnership between Spiro and Zeroca is more than a typical strategic alliance. It blends mobility innovation with climate finance, harnessing the scale of Africa’s two-wheel transport sector to deliver social, environmental and economic impact. In essence, it seeks to turn what has often been an informal, high-emission, fossil-fuel-dependent transport ecosystem into a high-integrity, clean mobility network — backed by measurable climate credentials.
If executed well, the Nigeria and Kenya rollout could become a landmark example of how e-mobility in emerging markets can achieve commercial viability and climate impact — reinforcing that sustainable transport is not just a niche frontier but mainstream infrastructure in the making.
