Most forecasts give Nigeria another decade before electric vehicles matter. Joseph Eshio Oghanyan, founder of The Everlasting EV, thinks those forecasts are measuring the wrong thing. They measure vehicle prices. He measures monthly cash flow — and on that measure, he argues, the switch already makes sense for hundreds of thousands of Nigerian households and businesses today.
The forecasts are modelling the wrong number
"Nobody in Lagos buys a car by comparing sticker prices," he says. "They buy by asking what leaves their account every month." Once petrol, generator diesel, servicing and repairs are added together, a mid-range electric car financed at 10% equity over 60 months frequently lands below what the same household already spends running a petrol vehicle. The purchase price never changed — the comparison did.
"Adoption is not a price problem. It is a cash-flow problem wearing a price problem's clothes."
Four things that decide the curve
In his framing, four constraints — not consumer appetite — determine how fast Nigeria goes electric:
- Charging you can see. Confidence comes from visible infrastructure: home units, estate points and public hubs on routes people actually drive.
- Financing that matches income. 10% to 20% equity, tenors from 6 to 60 months, priced against the applicant's own risk classification rather than an EV penalty.
- Battery certainty. Published health data, warranty terms in plain language, and a service network that can diagnose a pack rather than guess at it.
- Honest education. Cost breakdowns and charging guides published before anyone is asked for money.
Why he starts with the boring layer
The founder is deliberate about building the unglamorous parts first: charger installers, trained technicians, parts channels, insurer clauses, bank credit criteria and document workflows. His argument is that the first thousand electric vehicle owners in any market decide the fate of the next hundred thousand. If that first cohort is stranded, uninsured or unserviced, the category stalls for a decade regardless of how good the cars are.
What 10% down actually looks like
The EasyPay structure he designed works backwards from the household budget. A buyer creates a free profile, gets an EV Readiness Score with real monthly numbers, and one application is submitted to partner banks — Stanbic IBTC, Access Bank and United Bank for Africa — in parallel. The buyer takes the best offer they qualify for instead of repeating paperwork three times.
The battery question, answered directly
Nigeria's climate makes people nervous about batteries, and he does not dismiss the concern. Heat accelerates degradation when packs are managed badly. The answer, he says, is thermal management, charging discipline and transparency: publish the health data, warranty the pack, and train technicians who can read it. "Fear survives on silence. Numbers kill it."
What success looks like
He measures progress in ordinary things: an electric car being serviced in Aba without drama, an estate in Lekki wiring chargers into its build spec, a bank pricing an EV loan without escalating it to head office. "Success is the day owning an electric car in Nigeria stops being a story worth writing."
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Joseph Eshio Oghanyan?
- He is the founder of The Everlasting EV, an electric mobility ecosystem serving Nigeria and West Africa across vehicles, financing, charging, insurance and education.
- Why does he believe Nigeria will adopt EVs faster than expected?
- Because adoption is decided by monthly cash flow, not sticker price. With petrol, diesel and repair costs included, a financed EV at 10% down over 60 months often costs less per month than running an existing petrol car.
- How much do you need to buy an electric car in Nigeria?
- Through EasyPay financing you can start from 10% equity down, with tenors from 6 to 60 months through partner banks Stanbic IBTC, Access Bank and UBA.
- Do batteries survive Nigerian heat?
- Yes, when the pack is thermally managed, charged sensibly and serviced by trained technicians. The Everlasting EV publishes battery health guidance and supports warranty cover on the pack.
- How do I start?
- Create a free profile on The Everlasting EV, get your EV Readiness Score, and browse available vehicles before deciding whether to apply for financing.