Two layers of financing
An electric fleet project has two very different balance sheets. Vehicles are small-ticket assets repaid daily by riders through telematics-secured credit. Infrastructure — swap cabinets, solar, ESS, an assembly line, a battery pack facility — is large-ticket, long-lived and must be financed by institutions. Most African EV start-ups solve the first layer and stall on the second. Export-credit instruments exist precisely for the second layer.
Team Poland instruments
MargTor's Polish heritage (Amperi, electro.technology, Hadron Energy, TOREN PATH) gives access to the Team Poland framework for exporters:
- BGK buyer credit. Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego, Poland's state development bank, lends to the foreign buyer (or the buyer's bank) to purchase Polish capital goods and services. Tenors of 5–10+ years, fixed rates, hard currency. The African project company borrows; the Polish supplier is paid on delivery.
- KUKE export insurance. Poland's export credit agency insures BGK or a commercial bank against non-payment by the foreign buyer (commercial and political risk). With KUKE cover a Kenyan or Tanzanian project becomes an acceptable risk for a European lender.
- Combined structure. BGK + KUKE is the standard package; TOREN PATH (path.com.pl) maps the instrument mix, prepares documentation and runs the application with the exporter and the buyer.
Eligible content typically includes chargers and swap cabinets, ESS and battery systems, power electronics, assembly tooling and engineering services — the Polish-origin parts of a MargTor project.
What a bankable pack looks like
Lenders and insurers want the same six documents, and MargTor prepares them as part of the engineered proposal:
- Feasibility study with site data and demand model.
- TCO-versus-petrol model with stated assumptions.
- Five-year cash-flow forecast and sensitivity (fuel price, FX, utilisation).
- Risk register with mitigations (telematics, BaaS, SACCO guarantees).
- Implementation schedule and procurement plan.
- Counterparty profile — the SACCO, operator or utility that signs.
Kenyan Special Economic Zones
Importing complete vehicles is expensive. Assembling CKD/SKD kits inside a Kenyan Special Economic Zone changes the cost base:
- Duty and VAT relief on imported components — roughly a 25% landed-cost advantage.
- Preferential corporate tax for the assembler.
- A "Kenyan Made" route to public procurement and to duty-free export into the EU under the EPA.
A 40-ft container carries about 140 two-wheeler CKD kits; local assembly adds jobs, qualifies for incentives and shortens spare-parts lead times.
Putting it together
A typical MargTor structure: riders finance vehicles daily through a SACCO and a fintech; the project company finances cabinets, solar and ESS with BGK buyer credit insured by KUKE; the assembly line sits in an SEZ and ships kits to other East African markets. Three balance sheets, each financed by the instrument built for it.
See also: Telematics and credit · Battery-as-a-Service · Energy storage for mobility hubs.