Driving Green Mobility: How Asset Finance Is Accelerating Kenya’s EV Transition

On a quiet Nairobi morning, a matatu owner who has spent fifteen years watching fuel prices swing wildly might be doing a different kind of sum. Diesel at one end of the page, a charging bill at the other. For a growing number of Kenyan operators, the arithmetic has started to tilt. The question is no longer whether electric vehicles will arrive on Kenya’s roads, but who will help the people who run those roads afford the switch.

That question sits at the heart of a quiet shift in Kenya’s asset finance sector, and it is one NCBA Bank intends to answer.

The Price Tag Problem

Electric vehicles are cheaper to run than their petrol and diesel cousins. They have fewer moving parts, no engine oil to change, and a fuel cost that can be a fraction of what operators pay at the pump. But the upfront price is another story. For a small business owner or a transport operator with a handful of vehicles, that sticker price is often the wall that stops the conversation before it starts.

This is where asset finance earns its place. By spreading the cost of a vehicle over time and tying repayment to the income the asset generates, financing turns a prohibitive purchase into a manageable business decision. A boda boda cooperative, a delivery startup, a school transport provider or a commercial fleet operator can put an electric vehicle to work today and pay for it from the savings and earnings it produces.

It is a model NCBA knows well. The bank calls itself “The Home of Asset Finance,” a position built over years of backing MSMEs, commercial fleet operators and transport owners who need vehicles to grow. Green mobility, in many ways, is the next chapter of that same story.

More Than a Loan

Financing the vehicle is only the first step. An operator moving into electric transport needs a dealer who understands the technology, an insurer who can cover a product still new to the market, and sometimes a leasing arrangement that lets them test the waters before committing fully.

That is why the ecosystem around the bank matters as much as the bank itself. Motor vehicle dealers, both new and pre-owned, are the first face a buyer meets. Insurance brokers shape how risk is priced and understood. Insurance premium financing partners make annual cover easier to carry, and leasing agents open doors for businesses that prefer flexibility over ownership. When these players understand electric vehicles and believe in them, customers feel the difference.

NCBA has spent nearly two decades cultivating exactly these relationships through the Johari Awards. Established in 2006, the awards recognise the top-performing partners who drive growth across the bank’s Asset Finance and Insurance businesses. They have become a strategic brand asset, a yearly moment when the bank says thank you to the intermediaries who carry its promise to customers.

Taking the Conversation to the Towns

This year, Johari is going on the road. The 2026 regional tour began in Mombasa on 25th September and moves through Kisii and Kisumu, then Eldoret, Nakuru, Nyeri or Karatina, Meru and Thika, before the grand finale at the Edge Hotel and Convention Center in Nairobi on 4th December.

The route is deliberate. By travelling across the Coast, Western, Rift Valley, Mt. Kenya and Nairobi regions, NCBA is meeting partners where they work, in the towns where deals are actually made. A dealer in Kisumu faces different customers and different pressures than one in Thika. Taking the awards to them, rather than asking them to come to the capital, reflects a belief that economic impact is local before it is national.

It also creates space for conversations that matter to the future of mobility. As partners gather in each town, the topics that surface are practical ones. What do customers ask about electric vehicles? Where are the charging gaps? How should insurers think about batteries? How can financing keep pace with a market that is changing faster than most product catalogues?

Banking on Belief

NCBA’s stated purpose is “Banking on Belief, Empowering Ambitions,” and green mobility puts that idea to a real test. Belief is exactly what an early adopter needs: the confidence that a new technology will pay off, and that a financial partner will stand behind the decision.

For the entrepreneur eyeing an electric van, or the transport owner wondering whether to electrify part of a fleet, that backing can be the difference between waiting and acting. And for the partners who recommend, sell, insure and lease those vehicles, the Johari Awards offer recognition for helping make that leap possible.

Kenya’s roads will not go electric overnight. Charging networks need to grow, policy needs to stay supportive, and buyers need to see proof that the numbers work. But the direction of travel is clear, and the businesses that move early stand to gain the most. Asset finance, backed by a strong network of partners, is how many of them will get there.

As the Johari tour rolls from the coast to the highlands and on to Nairobi, it carries a simple message: the road to a greener future is one that people can actually afford to drive.

Read Also: NCBA Powers Kenya’s Green Logistics Shift with Financing for 15 Electric Trucks