Nigerian entrepreneur builds electric mini-buses in clean energy push

By Seun Sanni

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – Nigerian entrepreneur Mustapha Gajibo has been changing petrol mini-buses into electrical autos at his workshop, however he’s now going a step additional to construct photo voltaic battery-powered buses from scratch in a push to advertise clear vitality and curb air pollution.

Africa’s prime producer and exporter of crude oil has heavily-subsidised gasoline and a patchy provide of electrical energy — a mix that may discourage anybody from investing in electrical autos.

However Gajibo, a 30-year-old college drop-out and resident of Maiduguri metropolis in Nigeria’s northeast, is undaunted. He says rising international oil costs and air pollution make electrical autos a worthwhile different in Nigeria.

At his workshop, he has already stripped combustion engines from 10 mini-buses, powering them with photo voltaic batteries. The buses, which have been working for simply over a month, cowl a distance of 100 km on a single cost, he stated.

His most formidable challenge is constructing the buses from scratch. They are going to be geared up with photo voltaic panels and batteries.

“As I’m talking to you now at our workshop, we’re constructing a 12-seater bus which may cowl as much as 200 kilometres on one cost,” Gajibo stated.

“Earlier than the tip of this month we’re going to unveil that bus, which would be the first of its type in the entire of Nigeria,” he stated, including that his workshop had capability to provide 15 buses a month.

In Nigeria, like most of Africa, electrical autos haven’t but gained traction as a result of they’re dearer and there’s little electrical energy and no infrastructure to cost autos.

For now, Gajibo has one charging station powered by photo voltaic.

There are different hurdles like overseas forex shortages that make it tough to import components. So, he’s trying to supply them in Nigeria.

“We have now been substituting some supplies with native supplies to deliver our prices down and maximise revenue,” stated Gajibo.

(Further reporting by Abraham Archiga in Abuja, Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Enhancing by Christina Fincher)