Throughout three continents, one engineer chases Africa’s EV future

In 2008, Damilola Ogunleye argued together with his dad about his determination to check overseas as an alternative of enrolling at a college in Nigeria.

He was 16.

China, he insisted, was the place he wanted to be. His older brother had simply relocated there from Bells College, a non-public Nigerian establishment, and the images he despatched residence—clear campuses, broad boulevards, gleaming prepare stations—unsettled  Ogunleye’s assumptions.

“I bear in mind seeing my brother’s footage from China in the course of the [2008] Beijing Olympics,” Ogunleye instructed me. “Again then, all we knew was kung fu and crowded markets. Then, out of the blue, you’re seeing this nation on TV, internet hosting the Olympics, constructing large infrastructure. My brother would ship pictures, and I’d suppose, ‘Is that this actually China?’ I instructed my dad that I wished to see this world for myself.”

He received the argument. His father ran the numbers: on the time, tuition in China was corresponding to what he was already paying at a non-public college in Nigeria. The naira held way more worth then, with an change charge of ₦16 to ¥1 in February 2008 in comparison with ₦194 to ¥1 in February 2026. 

Ogunleye packed his baggage for China that very same 12 months.

He studied plane manufacturing at Shenyang Aerospace College for 4 years. He later earned a grasp’s diploma in mechanical engineering and automation from Northeastern College, a public college in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, finishing it in 2014.

On paper, the plan was clear: observe the aeronautical path, maybe even grow to be a pilot, like his brother.

However after six years of examine, Ogunleye didn’t pursue an aviation profession. As an alternative, he veered towards the automotive trade and would finally grow to be an advocate for electrical automobile (EV) adoption in Africa.

The journey to China and discovering love within the auto market 

When Ogunleye arrived in China in 2008, the Asian nation was not but the technological powerhouse it’s right this moment.

“China then was formidable, however not as polished as now,” he recalled. “You possibly can see the starvation. You possibly can see the drive. It wasn’t but this seamless digital society folks discuss right this moment, however the foundations had been there.”

After six years of engineering coaching, Ogunleye had developed what he described as a systems-oriented mindset. However it was the internships that modified the course of his life.

In 2014, he secured an internship with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW), the worldwide automobile manufacturing firm, in its technical help division. It was his first deep immersion into the automotive ecosystem.

“That was the place the motion began,” he mentioned. “At the moment I may very well be at BMW for a undertaking. Subsequent week I’d be in one other metropolis, possibly at Mercedes-Benz in Beijing, or Volkswagen in Changchun, or Shanghai. I used to be always in factories, always on trains and planes. I believe, naturally, I’m truly simply that form of one that likes to be on the transfer. I do probably not take pleasure in routines.”

The publicity broadened his urge for food. He later labored at Suzhou Dech Automation, a know-how consulting agency in China, selecting up computer-aided design (CAD) expertise for mechanical manufacturing. His first full-time function out of college positioned him on the intersection of robotics, automation, and automotive manufacturing traces.

In these years, Ogunleye travelled throughout industrial China, supporting tasks for automobile producers and understanding how partnerships are constructed within the auto engineering trade.

“I began discovering I used to be good at greater than engineering,” he mentioned. “I loved speaking to shoppers. I loved negotiating. I loved constructing relationships. That partnership facet of me began to develop.”

The seeds of his present profession—engineering, cross-border motion, partnerships—had been already planted.

Coming residence: OPay, Viajio, and the Malta leap

In 2018, ten years after leaving Nigeria, Ogunleye returned residence.

“Coming again at 26 was surreal,” he mentioned. “I left as a teen. I got here again as an engineer with world expertise. However I knew I needed to construct one thing right here. I wanted to construct contacts. I wanted to construct relevance. Tech was selecting up; I noticed the pattern and began taking additional programs on-line on Udemy and Coursera. I used to be taking totally different programs that had been geared in direction of tech.”

By 2019, he joined OPay as a Senior Product Supervisor at a essential second. The startup was pivoting aggressively into fintech, utilizing ride-hailing as a consumer acquisition technique.

“We had been constructing whereas working,” Ogunleye mentioned. “The thought was easy: folks didn’t belief digital banking but. So that you give them one thing they use every day—transport. They obtain the app to name a motorcycle. Over time, they belief the pockets.”

He helped increase operations into a number of cities, together with Abeokuta, Enugu, Jos, and Kano, typically arriving earlier than launch to conduct preliminary analysis.

“We’d enter a metropolis, arrange the workplace, recruit, onboard riders, hit our goal, then transfer to the following one. It was intense. It taught me scale.”

In 2020, because the COVID-19 pandemic rewired the worldwide tech ecosystem, Ogunleye left to launch his personal startup, Viajio, a geo-travel documentation and expertise platform.

“We wished to combination journey curators in Nigeria,” he defined. “You understand these ‘three days in Ibadan’ or ‘two days in Ondo Hills’ packages? We wished to provide them a digital storefront. Customers might curate their very own journey experiences and e book straight. We’d take a small fee.”

Viajio advanced to incorporate curated occasions and company experiences. He ran it for practically three years earlier than capital constraints pressured a shutdown.

Round this time, a buddy launched him to Malta’s digital nomad visa. In 2022, Ogunleye utilized, and inside months, he relocated.

Europe wasn’t new to him—he had travelled throughout the continent since 2018—however Malta provided a structured path for distant professionals.

“Once I turned 30, I instructed myself I wanted a reset,” he mentioned. “Malta was that reset.”

Life in Malta and an opportunity assembly 

Malta dazzles on Instagram: coastal cliffs, Mediterranean gentle, summer time events. Ogunleye skilled all of that. However he additionally noticed the structural realities.

“Malta is gorgeous,” he mentioned. “In the event you’re single, go. Get pleasure from it. Discover. The ocean is there. The hikes are there. The Nigerian neighborhood is robust. However you need to go together with readability.”

He warns digital nomads to not be seduced by aesthetics alone.

“You don’t get a transparent pathway to citizenship. Renewals are topic to approval. The price of dwelling is excessive. When you’ve got a household, it’s good to think twice,” mentioned Ogunleye.

Malta’s citizenship-by-investment scheme has attracted scrutiny from the European Union. The broader setting is cautious. For Ogunleye, it was a calculated chapter, not a everlasting vacation spot.

It was additionally the place destiny intervened.

In 2023, at an exhibition in Malta, he met the Malaysian founders of Fleevigo, a Malta-based EV and sustainability mobility startup. They’d integrated the corporate that 12 months and had been set to start operations in 2024.

“We simply began speaking,” he mentioned. “They’re third-generation Malaysians. I perceive Asian tradition. I perceive Africa as properly, so issues simply clicked [between us].”

In accordance with Ogunleye, an opportunity assembly at a 2023 exhibition in Malta launched him to Fleevigo’s founders—Jerry Hold, Chris Ching, Venus Lim, and Ballon Chua—who instructed him he was African and knew the market. He mentioned they wanted somebody to increase the corporate’s operations on the continent, and he agreed.

Since its 2024 founding, Fleevigo has expanded to Spain and different elements of Europe. Ogunleye took on the problem of launching the startup’s Kenya operations.

East Africa: EV conviction and the Fleevigo mannequin

Fleevigo formally registered in Kenya in July 2025 and deployed its first bikes on October 21, 2025, in response to Ogunleye, who now serves as the corporate’s nation supervisor for the East-African nation and leads its partnerships efforts on the continent. 

The corporate says it has positioned 80 electrical bikes on Nairobi’s roads and is getting ready to deploy one other 210 in April 2026.

However these first 80 bikes didn’t arrive able to experience. They arrived semi-knocked down.

“We introduced them in as SKDs—semi-knocked down models,” mentioned Ogunleye. “About 40% of the bikes nonetheless needed to be assembled domestically. We needed to match tyres, guard rails, mudguards, wire techniques—every little thing.”

For Ogunleye, this wasn’t a logistical headache. It was a possibility.

As an alternative of relying solely on engineers, he invited riders—boda boda operators who had signed up to make use of the bikes—to take part in assembling them.

“We requested them, ‘Who needs to discover ways to assemble an EV bike?’” he mentioned. “To our shock, loads of them volunteered.”

Below the supervision of Fleevigo’s engineers—and Ogunleye himself, drawing from his automation and manufacturing background—riders joined the meeting line. Over a number of intense weeks, they assembled all 80 bikes themselves.

One thing sudden occurred.

“These guys who assembled their bikes turned our prime performers,” he mentioned. “They noticed the bike from the packaging. They unboxed it. They screwed it collectively. They wired it. That bike turned their child.”

4 months later, a lot of those self same riders had recorded zero accidents. Their bikes had been spotless. Maintained like private property, though Fleevigo retained possession.

For Ogunleye, it bolstered a core perception: in order for you prospects to have an possession mindset towards your merchandise, give them an opportunity to take part. That’s an working philosophy he holds tightly to in how he builds.

From a enterprise operations standpoint, Fleevigo imports the bikes and retains possession. Riders be part of as impartial contractors. There isn’t any upfront deposit—a pointy deviation from rivals in Kenya’s boda boda ecosystem, the place deposits can attain KES 10,000–25,000 ($77–$193), Ogunleye famous.

Fleevigo companions with Bolt, the Estonia-based ride-hailing large, and onboards riders onto its fleet account, working a revenue-sharing mannequin.

“We empower riders first,” mentioned Ogunleye. “We give them the bike. We give them entry to earnings. Then we share income.”

The every day goal is KES 3,000 ($23). Many exceed KES 4,000–6,000 ($31–$46), mentioned Ogunleye.

Battery know-how, and the way it adjustments palms, can be central to Fleevigo’s enterprise. The EV startup’s 22kg batteries ship 130–150 kilometres per cost; at the least two occasions the vary of many rivals, in response to Ogunleye. As an alternative of constructing costly swap stations, the corporate retrofits native dukas (small outlets) to function battery swap factors.

“Why construct fancy infrastructure?” Ogunleye rhetorically requested throughout our interview. “Why not empower current companies?”

Ogunleye tailored Fleevigo’s companion resale mannequin in Kenya, the place duka homeowners, casual merchants in Kenya, turned central to their distribution mannequin. The corporate retrofitted these neighbourhood outlets—upgrading their electrical techniques, putting in charging racks, and supplying batteries—and turned them into swap hubs.

Below the mannequin, duka homeowners earn from each battery swap. Riders are available to change batteries and infrequently keep to make different small purchases, equivalent to tea, tender drinks, home goods, and spare elements. The battery swap turns into an anchor service.

Fleevigo’s swap companions now earn between KES 15,000–20,000 ($116–$155) weekly from battery swap operations alone, in response to Ogunleye.

The EV startup has additionally transitioned three riders into full-time workers roles inside months—a technician, an emergency response personnel, and an onboarding specialist.

His conviction in East Africa’s EV readiness is agency.

“Kenya is prepared as a result of riders care about every day margins,” he mentioned. “Electrical bikes scale back gasoline value. That’s instant worth. As soon as the economics make sense, adoption follows.”

Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania are below overview. Nigeria, he insists, is EV-ready, too.

“Nigeria understands scale,” mentioned Ogunleye. “As soon as coverage and infrastructure align, EV adoption will transfer quick. The demand is there.”

In November 2025, Nigeria’s Senate moved the Electrical Car Transition and Inexperienced Mobility Invoice into second studying. It units out a nationwide framework that hyperlinks EV adoption to native manufacturing, tighter import guidelines, and minimal charging infrastructure requirements. 

The draft legislation provides tax incentives and toll exemptions for EV customers, pushes overseas automakers to work with native assemblers, and threatens unlicensed importers with fines of as much as ₦500 million ($372,000) per cargo, giving political backing to the form of ecosystem Ogunleye believes can scale shortly.

The digital nomad who goes to work daily

At the moment, Ogunleye splits time between Kenya, Malta, Rwanda, and exploratory markets throughout East Africa. He says there are weeks when he barely units foot in an workplace.

“I simply want my telephone and my laptop computer,” he mentioned. “However you need to have sturdy folks on the bottom. Location-independence doesn’t imply absence.”

He recruits skilled operators. He leverages AI instruments. He builds partnerships relentlessly.

“There’s at all times a solution to strike a deal,” mentioned Ogunleye. “You simply should leverage nice folks, nice expertise, nice companions. No matter you aren’t good at, don’t hassle to do it. Discover somebody who can do it and work collectively.”

He has lived in China, labored throughout European techniques, scaled operations in Nigeria, and now builds EV infrastructure in East Africa. His mobility shouldn’t be aesthetic; it’s practical, he mentioned.

He goes to work daily.

He boards flights. He visits riders. He calls 150 boda-boda operators from one other continent. He sits in dukas discussing battery wiring.

For the common digital nomad, he sees alternative in world mobility, however with self-discipline.

“Don’t transfer blindly,” he mentioned. “Check the bottom. Perceive the training system in case you have youngsters. Perceive the healthcare system, importantly, and don’t simply chase the tag.”

As for electrical mobility, his perception is unshaken. Ogunleye believes the appropriate coverage and native manufacturing incentives will create a thriving setting for EV uptake. He notes that a number of African nations are already implementing EV-forward insurance policies.

For a boy who as soon as argued his solution to China at 16, that story remains to be unfolding in his journey main EV development for a sustainability model in Africa.

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