Oando Clean Energy says it will soon roll out 12000 electric buses in Nigeria in line with the climate solution agenda to limit carbon greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
Executive Vice President Mr Ademola Ogunbanjo, announced this on Wednesday, December 6, 2023, in Dubai during his presentation titled ‘Aiding Nigeria’s Race to Net Zero by 2020” at the ongoing climate change conference known as COP28.
Ogunbanjo also said that the company would begin assembly of electric buses in Nigeria by 2026, saying the viability test and Environment Impact Assessment for the project were already concluded.
He said two buses had already been deployed in Lagos, which would be up-scaled to 50 soon out of the 2000 planned for the state.
“The agenda is 2000 buses for Lagos, 12000 for Nigeria. Nobody must import 12000 buses into the country when we can build a local assembly.
“We will be assembling vehicles in Nigeria forever. Making it electric does not change anything. Whatever it needs, we only need to work together, the private sector and the government, to ensure we pull resources together and build local capacity.
“It is the only way we can grow. The error we made in the oil and gas era when we did not build as much local capacity as we could or should have. We won’t repeat that with energy transition.
“Energy consumption and transportation form the two largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in our country. Transportation is more so because we are largely a logistic-based economy. We don’t manufacture much; we import a lot and we move whatever we import around.
“With wind energy projects and sustainable transport systems, we can decarbonize our economy. If we can decarbonize the transportation sector in Nigeria, we would have made a giant stride towards the achievement of our Net Zero agenda by 2060,” he said.
Earlier in his address, Dr Aionojie Irune, the President of the Oando Clean Energy said the company was moved by the show of seriousness that Nigeria had exhibited in the energy transition conversation.
As much as it is disadvantageous to potentially to the continent, he said, Oando Clean Energy was committed to the 2060 Net Zero target.
“We as, Oando, have stepped forward to effectively take a portion of that commitment of the government. We believe that seven to 10 percent of that commitment is something we can impact as a company.
“That is a fundamental basis for what we have done in Lagos State on the mass transit. We moved them from diesel-operated buses to electric buses.
“These are all agenda to continue to shift us from largely from fossil fuels energy generated and transport system to renewable-based energy generation and transport system,” he said.
By Dare Akogun
