The Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Works and Transport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with an electric mobility company named SPIRO.

Under the agreement, the first between an African government and a green mobility company on the continent will enable SPIRO to deploy more than 140,000 electric two-wheelers in the Ugandan market over the next five years and over 3000 recharging and battery swapping stations across the country to support this transition, which will mainly target "boda-boda", taxis drivers.

Gen. Katumba Wamala, the Minister of Works and Transport signed the agreement on behalf of the government of Uganda terming it the beginning of a long partnership.

The electric motorcycles that Spiro will soon introduce into Uganda are specially designed and adapted for the African market and Ugandan terrain. The Company’s swapping technology will allow their users to easily travel with no range limits due to access to multiple battery swap stations.

Shegun Adjadi Bakari, the CEO of SPIRO and partner at the African Fund for Transformation and Industrialization (ATIF) noted that the partnership between the Ugandan Government and SPIRO will result in the creation of over 9,000 jobs. An additional focus will be on contributing to Uganda's industrialization policy. To support this deployment, an electric motorcycle assembly plant will be built to promote “made in Uganda”. Electric motorcycles will be affordable for future users. The initiative will help boda-boda riders save up to 40% of their current daily costs.

Boda-bodas taxis now account for more than 40% of travel flows in Kampala, and more in other cities across the country. By targeting these users, we are clearly demonstrating our commitment to addressing the climate and health challenges posed by the pollution associated with our current modes of transport.” adds Shegun Adjadi Bakari.

Users will be able to change their battery in less than 3 minutes compared to the usual 3 hours for a standard charge. Today SPIRO performs over 130,000 swaps from more than 250 operational battery swapping stations per month between Benin, Togo and Rwanda. The 4,500 motorcycles on the road have already traveled more than 22 million km with no carbon dioxide emissions.

General Katumba Wamala remarked that the deployment of these electric motorcycles and reliable charging and battery swapping networks is in line with Uganda's ambitions to become one of the leading countries for electric mobility in Africa.

 “In the coming weeks, we will launch our program to replace Internal Combustion Engine motorcycles with electric motorcycles as announced by HE President Museveni end of last year. Ugandan drivers will be able to hand in their old electric motorcycle model and leave with one of our commercialized electric models. This is a first in Africa and we already launched this system in Benin, Togo, and Rwanda with a strong response from the market and we are happy to bring the same approach here in Uganda,” explained SPIRO’s CEO.