Young Nigerian entrepreneur in vanguard of green mobility

31-year-old entrepreneur Mustapha Abubakar Gajibo first converted petrol-powered minibuses into solar-powered electric vehicles, in his workshop of Borno state.

He now moved on to full designing and manufacturing of vehicles in his brand-new workshop in Abuja, the federal capital.

Abubaker sought to address two main concerns: the high cost of living and environmental concerns.

"What actually motivated me into building of electric vehicle is that everybody knows how the prices of fuel go high everyday and also the prices of transport going high everyday and the damage caused by other fossil powered vehicle to our environment ...so I went into electric vehicle to solve all those problem [...]," he explains.

The young entrepreneur dropped out of university to pursue his dream. He then started his company Phoenix Renewable Energy. In 2017,  he began building electric vehicles. Eneven if he progressively gained recognition and experience, he had to overcome challenges ranging from the sourcing of materials to funding. 

He dreams of expanding electric buses in his country and beyond. Speaking to local media LeadershipNG, he said his company was contacted by people interested in his project from "Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau."

[We have a] "model of our electric vehicle which is designed for short range intractity mass transit .. this bus is a seven-sit bus, its fully designed and build here locally  [...] it covers a distance of 210 kilometres on one charge , it has an option of battery swapping which save the charging time as well ...."

Nigeria, one of Africa's top producers of crude oil has a patchy supply of electricity but Gajibo is undaunted.

His feat enabled him to showcase another image of Borno state located near the border with Chad which has suffered decades of insurgency at the hands of Boko Haram fighters.