Sometimes, moving forward is quite literal. It can mean reaching one more customer, making a delivery, getting to work without spending too much on transport, or being able to take your business further than you could before.
For a woman building a livelihood, mobility is not simply about getting from one place to another. It can shape how she works, how much ground her business can cover and, ultimately, whether she has the opportunity to build something of her own.
That is the thinking behind Women in Motion, a Fortune Credit initiative committed to financing 3,000 electric motorcycles for women over the next year.
Photos from the Women in Motion launch
But the motorcycle is only part of the story. The bigger question is: what would it take to make ownership feel possible for more women?
Making ownership more accessible
Women across Kenya are already building businesses, supporting families, creating income and contributing to the economy in countless ways.
The challenge is often not ambition. It is access to the assets and financial tools that can help turn that ambition into something tangible.
Women in Motion responds to that gap by lowering the initial barrier to ownership. Women can access an electric motorcycle with a KSh 10,000 deposit, with financing from as low as KSh 288 per day.
For those who choose the smartphone option, financing starts at approximately KSh 295 per day, with a smartphone included.
The numbers are important because affordability can determine whether an asset remains an aspiration or becomes something a person can realistically work towards owning.
And ownership matters.
An electric motorcycle can be more than transport. It can be a productive asset that helps a woman reach customers, make deliveries, access markets, reduce dependence on costly transport and create greater flexibility around how she works.
Designed around the woman, not just the asset
Women in Motion also asks a different question from traditional asset financing: what happens when we design around the realities of the person who owns the asset?
That thinking is reflected in the Fortune Malkia Cover.
The cover includes a three-day monthly wellness payout during menstruation and three months of maternity support after childbirth. Women who choose the smartphone option will also have access to the Menara Health app, which provides personalised health insights covering women's health from menstrual health through menopause.
Alongside this, women riders receive comprehensive motor insurance, personal accident cover, credit life cover and hospital cash cover.
These offerings recognise that an income-generating asset exists within a person's wider life. A woman can be a rider, business owner, mother, caregiver and provider at the same time. Her ability to earn does not exist separately from the realities she navigates every day.
Moving forward together
That approach is only possible through collaboration.
OEMs including Spiro brings the electric mobility expertise and motorcycles. Fortune Credit provides the financing. Insurance partners like Turaco, Monarch and Geminia provide protection, AECF provides catalytic funding which supports the low deposit, while Menara Health brings health technology into the journey.
Each partner contributes something different, but the objective is shared: making access to productive assets and the opportunities around them more practical for women.
And that thinking is captured in the six promises at the heart of Women in Motion: Access. Move. Earn. Build. Protect. Connect.
Access — starting with a KSh 10,000 deposit, making the path to ownership more attainable.
Move — with an electric motorcycle that gives her the mobility to get to work, reach customers and move her business forward.
Earn — by putting a productive asset in her hands, one she can use to generate income as she works towards ownership.
Build — with financial support and knowledge that can help her build beyond the immediate opportunity and towards greater financial security.
Protect — through motor insurance, personal accident cover, credit life cover, hospital cash and the Fortune Malkia Cover, recognising that protecting the woman and the asset are both part of responsible financing.
Connect — through the smartphone option and digital tools such as Menara Health, giving her access to information and technology that can support her beyond the motorcycle.
These six promises reflect a broader idea about what financial inclusion can look like. It is not simply about giving someone access to finance. It is about thinking through what happens before ownership, during ownership and when life inevitably gets in the way.
That is the road Women in Motion is trying to make more possible, one Malkia at a time.