Technology: Nigeria To Manufacture Solar & Electric Powered Cars In 2018

A memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by a firm, Oldang International Limited, with Chinese companies, Halkoff Logistics and Hornson Development Limited, to produce solar and electric powered vehicles in Nigeria. Oldang electric and solar powered vehicle is an automobile propelled by one or more electric motors, using electrical energy stored in rechargeable batteries or another energy storage device.

At the signing of the MoU in Lagos, the Managing Director, Oldang International Limited, Olubunmi Oluwadare, said that the project, which will kick start January next year, could produce up to 150 solar vehicles per day. The Sokoto State government meanwhile has begun connecting a number of rural households with solar energy. A statement by Mallam Imam Imam, spokesman to Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal quoted the Special Adviser to Tambuwal on Public Private Partnership, Bashir Gidado, as saying the project is a four-party partnership between the state government, the Nigeria Energy Support Project (NESP), GIZ of Germany and GoSolar.

With a target to generate over 50,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians, Oluwadare noted that the project, in its first phase, was projecting sales of up to 100,000 solar and electric vehicles in 2018. “The machines are coming from China while the time frame will be three months. What we are trying to do is that the first phase should start immediately, meaning that the other parts, like the battery section and the solar panel section, will start coming. We are likely going to take off by January 2018.”

Photo Credit: Getty

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