The pioneering Somali tuk-tuk driver seeking support for a revolutionary idea at Cop31

Fadumo Ahmed and her business partner want to convert 5,000 petrol tuk tuks to electric alternatives

Hassan Mumin and Fadumo Ahmed of Somali social enterprise eBajaaj at Cop31 in Antalya, Turkey. Photograph: Caroline O'Doherty

There are 75,000 tuk tuks in Mogadishu, spewing choking petrol fumes into the Somali capital’s air, filling its streets with unrelenting noise and driving up carbon emissions.

Only four women are licensed to drive them and one, Fadumo Ahmed, is planning a revolution.

Ahmed (32) and her business partner, Hassan Mumin (31), have set up eBajaaj, a social enterprise that aims to electrify the tuk tuk fleet.

They have 20 converted tuk tuks on the streets, the three-wheeled passenger vehicles stripped of their petrol motors to carry battery packs instead.

Entrepreneurs need investors and that’s why Ahmed is at Cop31.

She’s trying to get the attention of the many banks, investment houses and financial advisers that circle the corridors, often talking the talk about investing in the green transition but slow to put their money into transformative projects.

“We approached local banks but it’s a new technology in a fragile market,” Mumin says. “The risk is too high for them.”

So here’s their pitch. A tuk tuk driver pays $15 (€13.41) a day to fuel his vehicle and $20 twice a month for an oil change.

“He is going home with $2-3 a day,” says Ahmed. “It’s not enough. People are hungry.”

The $2,500 cost of buying and installing the battery conversion kit for each tuk tuk will be paid by eBajaaj.