Rwanda Strengthening prospects for climate-friendly transport and green jobs through e-mobility

Rwanda's growing population is increasingly being drawn to the cities. Among other things, this increases traffic in urban areas. Often, this takes the form of petrol-driven motorcycles. Air pollution and other environmental pollution are the result. At the same time, the rural population has hardly any access to low-threshold transport options for travel to the cities or longer distances. This is where S.U.L E-Mobility comes in: Since 2017, the local company has been offering a comprehensive e-mobility value chain, ranging from the manufacture of electric vehicles to assembly, maintenance and repair, through leasing solutions to the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. E-mobility and motorcycle sharing have enormous market potential in Rwanda, but there is a lack of qualified technical and service professionals in this market segment. Women in particular are severely underrepresented in this sector. To grow its rental and service networks and expand its market position in the e-mobility segment, S.U.L E-Mobility has established an E-Mobility Academy at the core if its business model. The aim is to give Rwandan youth interested in this industry the opportunity to develop into the e-mobility specialists so urgently needed.

In order to ensure that more skilled workers are available for the expansion of the e-mobility industry, the project partners implemented a series of measures between April 2020 and November 2021. The total budget was around EUR 400,000:

• Establishing an in-house training department and free training services covering all the occupational groups along the entire value chain for e-mobility.
• Development of training courses on business fundamentals for potential franchisees and founders of start-ups in the field of e-mobility.
• Providing trained trainers for young people with and without vocational qualifications, especially young women.
• Driving lessons for e-motorcycles.
• Employing young skilled workers in the workshops and service stations of the sharing network.

Together with the University of Rwanda and vocational schools, S.U.L E-Mobility has developed a hands-on skills acquisition and internship program, under S.U.L E-Mobility Academy, for young university or vocational school graduates. In addition, the Rwandan Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and the Kigali Employment Service Centre (KESC) participated in developing the training services, identified suitable training participants and assisted them in their job search. GIZ consulted with local experts and established contact with local donors.

S.U.L E-Mobility has succeeded in building up a large pool of qualified skilled workers that benefits not only the company, but also the industry and the national labour market as a whole. Through targeted training and driver safety courses, the company has strengthened its position in the future e-mobility market, and contributed to making motorcycle taxis in Rwanda safer and more climate-friendly.

• 1,045 jobs created
• 1,462 people trained
• 21 trainers were trained
• 32% of the trained technicians were women