The Director-General of National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Mr. Jelani Aliyu, has reiterated the need for African countries to embrace electric vehicles as alternative source for transportation in view of the socio-economic benefits to the continent.
Aliyu, who gave the charge in a statement issued on Thursday, stressed that the continent cannot advance at a faster pace with only vehicles with fossil fuel.
The director-general, had while delivering a speech on ‘Why E-Mobility is Necessary for Africa’ at the ongoing London EV Show in Britain, advocated the need for advanced de-centralised industrialization drive on the African continent to fast-track current efforts to grow the economies, protect the environment and mitigate health challenges.
The NADDC boss maintained that e-mobility would provide the necessary logistics and transportation that would expeditiously advance Africa, without destroying its natural environments and without contributing to the negative effect of climate change on the continent.
Aliyu listed some of the automotive migration benefits as including enabling Africans in a sustainable manner have access to jobs, healthcare, education, markets and further social interactions.
He further noted that many African countries and governments had started developing electric vehicle policies that would determine how best to promote the sector, stressing that some of the policies are geared toward addressing areas such as local production of electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and making sure there is accountability toward the mining and processing of raw materials in the continent.
On Nigeria’s efforts at promoting local production of electric vehicles, Aliyu disclosed that NADDC had been closely working with relevant local automotive and investment companies on the production of the vehicles.
For instance, he explained that while Hyundai Nigeria had started assembling electric cars in the country with the Kona EV, other local automotive companies, including Jet Systems Motors and Max-e, had also developed electric vans and motorcycles.
The NADDC chief expatiated: “We decided to go the sustainable way and we built four solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations to prove that the concept could work.
“We made three of them 100 per cent solar-powered and sited them at three universities so that technology transfer would begin to happen.
“It was to serve as platforms that manufacturers of electric vehicles and related products from around the world could leverage to collaborate in coming up with more e-mobility solutions,” he added.
Aliyu, therefore, urged foreign investors to begin to explore the opportunities in Nigeria for their electric vehicle investments as the country has policy frameworks for innovation.
He added: “We see our challenges as opportunities for advanced and forward-thinking companies from around the world to really look into and provide solutions that will add value, both financially and socially.
“This is to ensure that it is a win-win for the companies and for Nigeria, Africa and the world in general,” Aliyu stressed.
