The Relentless Builder: How Olabanjo Alimi is shaping Africa’s clean-energy future

By : Guardian Nigeria

Date: 13 December 2025 12:33pm WAT

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From electric mobility to renewable energy and sustainable travel and logistics, the QORAY CEO is stitching together the infrastructure Africa needs for the next decade through discipline, innovation, and execution.

In a decade defined by urgent calls for cleaner, smarter infrastructure, few leaders stand out for their ability to turn bold ideas into practical solutions. One of them is Olabanjo Alimi, founder and CEO of QORAY Mobility and Energies Limited, whose work sits at the intersection of electric mobility, renewable energy, and sustainable travel and logistics. Under his leadership, QORAY has emerged as one of Nigeria’s fastest-rising innovation companies, building systems that move people, power communities, and unlock new opportunities across the country.

Alimi’s selection among The Guardian’s 100 Most Strategic CEOs of 2025 is a recognition not just of the company’s rapid growth, but of a leadership philosophy anchored in purpose, discipline, and long-term thinking. His approach has helped QORAY carve its own lane in a young, evolving industry, one where the company is not only building a business but also laying out the foundations of an entirely new clean-energy ecosystem for Africa.

The Pivot to Purpose: From Oil & Gas to Clean Energy

A seasoned architect of transformative businesses, Alimi’s professional journey spans high-stakes operational leadership across the energy value chain, managing portfolios above USD 400 million, scaling teams, and driving complex turnarounds. At ENYO Retail & Supply, he helped grow the business from a start-up to more than 70 locations within two years. He later served as COO/Executive Director at Eterna PLC and went on to lead Renewable Energy & Mobility at Sterling Bank, where he deepened his commitment to sustainable solutions and the future of clean energy in Africa.

A Record of Execution that Sets New Benchmarks

Today, QORAY’s impact reflects Alimi’s trademark blend of audacity and precision. The company has deployed more than 2,150 electric vehicles and delivered over 5MWh of decentralised solar solutions nationwide, including the rollout of 120 units for a woman-only cooperative and an additional 2,000 vehicles across Nigeria, supported by a pioneering battery-swap and charging network that has created thousands of green jobs and delivered measurable environmental benefits.

In January 2025, QORAY cemented its reputation for technical credibility by earning a Guinness World Record for the Greatest Distance Travelled by an Electric Tuk-tuk/Autorickshaw in 12 Hours. Qoray Teak, one of the company’s electric tricycles, surpassed the 250km target by achieving 347.11km, demonstrating the durability, reliability, and real-world efficiency of locally adapted EV technology. Combined with the commissioning of Nigeria’s first publicly accessible charging station, the achievement reinforced QORAY’s status as a category-defining force in African clean energy.

The Integrated Ecosystem: Solving Africa’s Structural Gaps

What truly sets QORAY apart is its strategic, multi-sector model encompassing electric mobility, renewable energy, and sustainable travel and logistics. Alimi understood early that the sector’s biggest challenge, a lack of supporting infrastructure, could not be solved through specialisation alone. “You cannot sell EVs without places to charge them,” he noted.

The result is a deliberately interconnected ecosystem: vehicles supported by charging stations, charging stations powered by renewable energy, and an operational backbone capable of serving both mobility and logistics. By linking these verticals, QORAY reduces cost, accelerates deployment speed, and multiplies the value it creates across the supply chain.

At the heart of this philosophy is a simple conviction: Africa must build its own solutions. “Nobody is coming to save us,” Alimi asserts, a perspective that guides QORAY’s commitment to spotting overlooked opportunities and turning them into scalable systems that uplift communities.

A CEO Driven by Innovation and Execution

For Alimi, QORAY’s core values – innovation, change, and execution – are non-negotiable. Innovation means building what does not yet exist; change means challenging legacy systems that are slow, underfunded, or dependent on unstable infrastructure; execution means translating ideas into measurable outcomes.

He acknowledges one of the region’s biggest strategic constraints: limited public financing and long development cycles. QORAY fills this gap by rapidly deploying clean energy technologies that address immediate needs across transportation, power, and logistics. “Ideas are everywhere,” he says. “Execution is rare. That’s where the real value lies.” This execution-first culture has earned QORAY strong credibility among industry players, communities, and institutional partners.

A Vision to Transform Daily Life Across Africa

As QORAY expands, Alimi’s ambition is bold yet deeply practical: to become Africa’s most life-changing company. In the next five years, the company aims for two out of every ten electric vehicles in Nigeria, and two out of every ten distributed solar installations, to be QORAY-powered systems. Through models like battery-as-a-service, QORAY intends to put money back in the hands of everyday Nigerians while improving health outcomes, strengthening small businesses, and boosting productivity across the continent.

Alimi’s leadership represents a rare combination of courage, competence, and constraint-led innovation. QORAY is not chasing trends; it is building the foundational infrastructure that will shape the prosperity of a continent.

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