The Director-General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council, NADDC, Jelani Aliyu, has reiterated the need for Africa to embrace Electric Vehicles, saying that the continent cannot advance at a fast pace using fossil fuel alone.
Mr Aliyu stated this on Wednesday while delivering a speech on ‘Why E-Mobility is Necessary for Africa’, during the ongoing London EV Show in Britain.
He called for advanced decentralized industrialization on the African continent, saying: “E-mobility will be able to provide the necessary logistics and transportation that would expeditiously advance Africa without destroying its natural environments, and without contributing to the negative climate change of the planet.”
“That is why e-mobility is important to Africa and to the world, so that Africans would, in a sustainable manner, have access to jobs, healthcare, education, markets and further social interactions.”
Mr Aliyu, however, disclosed that a number of African countries and governments have started developing Electric Vehicle policies that would determine how best to promote the sector.
According to him, some of these policies are geared towards addressing areas such as local production of electric vehicles, charging infrastructure, and to making sure there is accountability towards the mining and processing of raw materials on the continent.
Speaking on Nigeria’s efforts on promoting local production of Electric Vehicles, Mr Aliyu said the NADDC has been working closely with relevant local automotive and investment companies on the production of electric vehicles.
The NADDC boss added that while Hyundai Nigeria has successfully started assembling Electric Cars in Nigeria, with the Kona EV, other local automotive companies such as Jet Systems Motors and Max-e have also developed electric vans and motorcycles.
“We decided to go the sustainable way and we built four solar-powered electric vehicle charging stations to prove that the concept works.
“We made three of them 100% solar powered and sited them at three universities so that technology transfer would begin to happen.
“Also 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,” Mr Aliyu noted.
He, therefore, called on investors to come to Nigeria, saying that the country “presents a virtually clean slate for innovation”.
“We see our challenges as opportunities for advanced and forward-thinking companies from around the world to really look into and provide solutions that would add value, both financially and socially.
“So that it’s a win-win for the companies and for Nigeria, Africa and the world in general,” Mr Aliyu added.
