An indigenous company, Nigus, has revealed plans to introduce electric vehicles into the Nigerian automobile market in 2018. To this end, the company is partnering with a Chinese firm, Build Your Dreams (BYD).

Malik Ado-Ibrahim (photo, left), chairman of Nigus, who disclosed this last Thursday, revealed that the firm would deliver a local assembly plant for electric vehicles by 2020, still in partnership with BYD. “We are also working with BYD to get a local brand and start an electric vehicle assembly plant for Nigeria from 2020. Gradually we will move to an EV with the African DNA starting in Nigeria,” he explained.

According to him, several countries across the world have set targets to ban the usage of petrol-fueled vehicles. Amongst these India and UK who intend to achieve this goal by 2030 and 2040 respectively. Considering this, the executive stressed that Nigeria needs to be part of the automotive revolution or it will end up being the dump site for vehicles banned from other countries.

Anita Fatunji