Nigerian entrepreneur builds electric mini-buses

STORY: Location: Borno, Nigeria

Electric mini-buses are taking to the streets of Nigeria.

They’re built by entrepreneur Mustapha Gajibo.

He's on a mission to promote clean energy and curb pollution

by converting petrol-guzzling mini-buses into electric ones, offering local passengers more comfort, a cheaper fare and a lower carbon footprint.

[Mustapha Gajibo, Founder / Phoenix Renewables]

‘’You can see we always have prices of fuel going up, prices of transportation are also going up and then you can see the damages that normal vehicles…that is the petrol powered vehicles…diesel powered vehicles are causing to our environment. So I came up with this technology to solve all these problems.’’

Gajibo has already ripped the combustion engines from 10 mini-buses,

replacing them with solar panels and batteries.

Now he’s going a step further – building an electric mini-bus from scratch.

It will be a 12-seater battery-powered bus fitted with a home-style air conditioner.

When complete, it will be able to cover up to 200 kilometres on one charge.

‘’Cost is a very key thing we put into consideration when designing our buses and our vehicles at large, because you know it doesn’t make sense to produce a technology that people cannot afford. So we are always trying to see how we bring down the cost of our production so that our selling cost will be affordable for people."

Like in most of Africa, the combustion engine reigns supreme in Nigeria

because electric vehicles are expensive and infrastructure for charging the vehicles is poor.

Gasoline is heavily subsidised by the government

while electricity needed to charge electric vehicles is very patchy.

For now, Gajibo has one charging station powered by solar.

His drivers bring in their buses to charge at the station, while maintenance work is done every two weeks.