Nigeria’s EV push needs reliable power. Can Telios help close the gap?

Nigeria’s electric vehicle (EV) transition is gathering momentum, but putting more EVs on the road will solve only half of the mobility equation. The other challenge is ensuring drivers have access to reliable electricity when and where they need to charge.

That challenge is creating an opening for energy technology companies such as ⁠Telios, a Nigerian clean-tech startup building digital infrastructure to help renewable-energy developers manage power assets and connect projects with investors.

The opportunity has become more significant following the federal government’s recent decision to expand the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas into the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas and Electric Vehicles.

Under the expanded mandate, PiCNG & EV will coordinate Nigeria’s clean-mobility strategy and anchor the development and rollout of electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and related investments nationwide.

But EV charging infrastructure will require dependable electricity and significant capital, particularly where operators rely on combinations of solar generation, battery storage and grid supply. Telios is positioning its technology to address similar problems already confronting renewable-energy developers.

Telios’ software brings data from different energy equipment, including solar panels, batteries, inverters and smart meters, into a central system. This gives operators visibility into electricity generation, equipment performance, customer consumption, revenues and faults.

“If a transformer goes down or a battery degrades, the system alerts the operator immediately, saving significant time and operational expenditure,” Olubunmi Olajide, co-founder and chief executive officer of Telios, said during an interview with journalists recently.

For an EV charging operator, similar visibility could help identify problems affecting the power infrastructure behind chargers before prolonged downtime disrupts motorists or commercial fleets.
Building investor confidence

Telios’ business model also targets another obstacle that could eventually confront Nigeria’s EV charging sector; financing infrastructure at scale. Olajide said commercial banks and specialised impact investors could take between nine and 12 months to evaluate and invest in solar projects, with significant time spent establishing whether the information supplied by developers is reliable.

“Normally, it can take commercial banks and specialised impact investors between nine to twelve months to evaluate and invest in a solar project,” Olajide said. “A huge chunk of that time is lost to back-and-forth due diligence asking if the project data is reliable and where it came from.”

Telios seeks to shorten that process by providing standardised operational information that investors can use to assess renewable-energy assets.

The company is among the Energy and ClimateTech startups in the Nigerian portfolio of ⁠Antler, an early-stage venture capital firm. Antler’s official portfolio identifies Telios as a 2026 investment and describes the startup as specialising in the digitisation and asset management of renewable-energy infrastructure, particularly independent power producer assets across Africa.

The startup’s own platform currently reports renewable-energy assets worth $75 million, 117 MWp of total capacity, 155 MWh of battery energy storage and four asset classes. Those capabilities could have implications for EV infrastructure if charging developers increasingly turn to distributed renewable energy to overcome unreliable grid supply.

From power plants to EV charging

Nigeria has already started experimenting with the connection between renewable power and electric mobility. The Energy Commission of Nigeria commissioned an EV charging station at its Abuja headquarters in 2025, describing it as a demonstration of how renewable energy could be integrated with electric transportation nationwide.

As such projects move from demonstration sites towards commercial charging networks, operators will need to know how much electricity their sites are generating, whether batteries are performing properly and when components require maintenance.

Financiers will also need credible information on the assets they are being asked to fund. That is where Telios could find a place in Nigeria’s automobile transition. Its platform is designed to work across standalone renewable installations, commercial off-grid projects and grid-connected systems rather than being restricted to a single power model.

There is, however, an important distinction. Telios has not publicly announced an EV charging network or disclosed an existing partnership with an EV charging operator in the information reviewed for this report. Its immediate opportunity in electric mobility therefore lies in applying its renewable-energy asset management and investment technology to the power infrastructure that charging networks require.

For Nigeria, the distinction matters. An EV transition cannot be sustained by vehicle imports, assembly plants and government incentives alone. Drivers must be confident that charging infrastructure will work, operators need visibility over their energy assets, and investors need confidence that the infrastructure they finance can perform.

As Nigeria moves from clean-mobility policy towards wider EV deployment, the companies managing the electricity behind the chargers could become almost as important as those building the vehicles themselves.

For Telios, that presents an opportunity to move from helping Africa finance and manage renewable-energy plants to potentially supporting one of the energy sector’s newest customers — electric mobility.

Read also: Nigeria cuts vehicle import duties as government pushes To lower car prices, ease inflation

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on August 3. It has since been updated to reflect that Telios is in the Nigerian portfolio of ⁠Antler, along with minor updates to the featured image’s alt text.