Mobile Power’s combined ‘battery-as-a-service’ and ‘vehicle-as-a-service’ business model pilot in rural Nigeria

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Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£12,588,975

Aug. 31, 2022

Aug. 31, 2025

Transport in Nigeria is reliant on fuel that is expensive, often poor quality & reliant on government subsidy. Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producing country but subsidises fuel resulting in a cost to the state.

Technical advances in electric vehicles in China and India has seen an explosion in cheap electric motorbikes and electric agricultural tricycles. Africa has the richest renewable energy resources on the planet in the form of solar and biomass. However the issue is power distribution not generation. An innovate battery technology is needed to unlock an electric vehicle revolution in rural Africa.

Mobile Power has designed and tested an energy distribution ecosystem that supplies affordable, clean power to poor households and enterprises in off-grid communities across West Africa using a pay-as-you-go smart battery rental system. The core innovation is in the cost-effective distribution of electricity off-grid. Mobile Power's batteries are charged at solar charging stations called "MOPO Hubs". The MOPO Batteries are then rented directly from the Hub or distributed through MOPO Agents using our smart battery technology. Our inbuilt security system prevents unauthorised activation of battery packs and unauthorised charging.

This project will focus on the rural Nigeria market providing clean affordable power to 75 villages by:

1. REPLACING HOUSEHOLD GENERATORS: The MOPO Batteries provide electricity for households and micro-enterprises for phone charging, lights, TVs, radios and run other DC appliances such as freezers, sewing machines or agricultural machinery.
2. IMPROVING RURAL TRANSPORT NETWORKS: The MOPO Batteries will power electric motorbikes and agricultural tricycles, using a battery swap model, renting out the motorbikes and batteries. This rental model makes it affordable to the market - cheaper than fossil-fuel alternatives.

BIOMASS PILOT: Our MOPO Hubs will be powered mostly by solar but we will also charge the batteries using electricity generated from cassava waste through the PyroGenesys' PyroPower process. A site has already been identified in Oyo State as a pilot site. This will demonstrate our model with multiple renewable energy sources.

Women make up 60-80% of the Nigerian farmers and yet have significantly less access to motorised transport than men. This is associated with typical gender-related roles (greater responsibility for children), gender-related financial and economic situations (less access to money) and gender-related expectations about access to transport. Tearfund Nigeria will work in these 75 communities to provide Transforming Masculinities training that has been proven to improve gender equality and women's access to clean electricity and transport.