How Spiro’s Electric Bike Is Creating Employment, Skills Demand In Nigeria

Spiro, Africa’s biggest electric mobility company, is reshaping Nigeria’s transportation sector through the production of its innovative electric bikes which has created direct employment for more than 500 Nigerians working in production, administration and retail sections of its operations.

Since its entry into Nigeria’s transportation system in 2024, Spiro has accelerated electric mobility in Nigeria by offering affordable electric bikes (Ekon model) that cut fuel and maintenance costs by up to 40%, aiming to make electric transportation a viable, long-term, and cost-effective investment for Nigerians.

And with its over 800+ swap stations, they provide a reliable, sustainable alternative to petrol bikes, reducing emissions and fostering a cleaner urban environment.

The company is rapidly expanding its battery-swapping network and operations beyond Lagos to states including Ogun, Abuja, Taraba, Niger, Nasarawa, Gombe, and planning for Oyo, Kaduna, and Ondo.

Spiro is assembling its bikes within Nigeria, boosting job creation for technicians, engineers, and swap station operators.

Director of Spiro West Africa, Rahul Gaur,Spiro, told THE WHISTLER in an interview how the company is creating jobs through expansion of its operations.
“I’ll not say jobs which have been created, rather I’ll say the number of employees that we have today in Nigeria is approximately 570 people.

“As you can see, we are not only a manufacturer, we are also retailing also; so that means we have all kinds of departments ranging from admin to sales to technology, because technology plays a bigger role in our industry of electric mobility,” he said.
He said Spiro’s bikes are backed by high-tech, emphasising that personnel are required at every stage from production to sales. He said a team also provides after sales services to riders and dealers.

“Most importantly, comes the after-sales which is again a bigger part of our operations. Although these bikes don’t need much of service because they have very low number of moving parts, hence the requirement of service is not much, but still we have to make sure that our riders are getting service wherever needed.”
Spiro has a big energy team that ensures the bikes have adequate power to run. According to Gaur, approximately 50 percent of Spiro’s personnel are in the energy department making battery swap stations, swapping batteries and providing related services.

“There’s a lot of work done on the energy, and I’ll say energy is approximately 50% of the manpower that we have today, including the swapping agents because every rider who comes to a swap station, the battery has to be swapped in the system also.

“ So, there’s a scanning done on the incoming battery, then the battery is given after scanning and I will charge the customer based on the energy that I am giving to him or the energy that he has used,” he explained.
The product and services offered by Spiro require skills in engineering, technology and production of energy.

Surprisingly, Mr Gaur said the needed skills are available in Nigeria.

“We are having 99% people employed in our organization who are locals. Absolute local talents hired in terms of technology, manufacturing, energy, sales, after-sales, everyone is local. What we do is, we hire them and we have induction programs, training programs, and then we try and upskill them regularly by giving them on-the-job training or giving them an opportunity to train the new people who are coming in.”

He said the electric mobility solutions provided by Spiro is not only helping support cleaner environment, but also helping Nigerians safe money, especially those in the logistics business.

“The major saving comes from the maintenance. Why maintenance? Because a lot of petrol bikes that you see today which are very old, you will find them at a small workshop which will have the engine out and you know the oil spilled somewhere. What does that mean? It is not about the cost of that repair, it is also the downtime, the number of days that bike will be standing there and the rider will not be able to earn out of that bike for so many days.”

He said Spiro bikes have two major advantages over petrol bikes: low downtime and cheaper maintenance.

“Electric mobility gives you two things, one obviously is lower downtime because there is no engine, there is no oil filter, there’s no gasket. The downtime is low and secondly whatever parts we have today they are very economical, reasonably priced which gives you approximately 35 to 38 percent of savings in one year only on the maintenance of the bike. “

Spiro is also helping Nigeria grow its human capital in the mobility sector through partnership with tertiary institutions in the country. The company is already partnering with the University of Ibadan by providing summer trainings and internships for its students.

The partnership will also extend to other institutions as the company continues its expansion across the country.

Mr Gaur advised Nigerian youths to take advantage of the opportunities in the mobility sector by investing in learning about the technology driving it.
“The advice will be just to try and learn from any source that you can learn because mobility is the biggest opportunity in Nigeria. With so many bikes on the road today, I see a lot of electric cars coming to Nigeria. We are also bringing electric Keke very soon.
“So this transportation is going to improve in terms of a lot of aspects.”