Mustapha Gajibo is the name of a 30 year-old, promising young guy that produces solar mini bus in North Nigeria.
In an age where many young people in most developing countries(Nigeria not exempted) have taken to cybercrimes in a bit to get-rich-quick.
Where the core watchword of hardwork and time have been considered old and unnecessary.
In a country, where unemployment and poverty is clearly factors they are identified with, by their developed counterparts.
Where only few talented young citizens like Mustapha Gajibo abandons nursing the woes of what his society and government have taken from him.
Rather, dreams and dares to be and do differently with the immediate and limited resources at his disposal.
Nigerians have become accustomed to long queues for gasoline and the ridiculously high fluctuations in bus fares.
Even as one of the Africa’s largest producer of oil, its residents still do not benefit from a steady supply.
These and more are part of the reason Gajibo dared the nearly impossible.
Mustapha Gajibo’s Invention
Nigerian entrepreneur Mustapha Gajibo came to limelight having discovered his ability to convert petrol mini-buses into electric vehicles at his workshop called Phoenix Renewable Energy.
In a similar turn of events, Africa’s top producer and exporter of crude oil is known to have heavily-subsidised gasoline and a fractionalized supply of electricity — a combination that gives people sceond thoughts about investing in electric vehicles.
But Gajibo, a 30-year-old higher education drop-out currently residing in Maiduguri, Bornu State, Nigeria makes a mark and raises the stakes fascinatingly, when he kick-started building his electric vehicles in 2017.
Unlike most developed countries, in Nigeria and most of Africa, electric vehicles have yet to gain traction because they are not only more expensive but the country have little to no infrastructure to charge these vehicles.
Mustapha says rising global oil prices and pollution have made electric vehicles a great alternative in Nigeria.
In his workshop, he has successfully removed combustion engines from 10 mini-buses, and in their stead powered them with solar batteries.
The buses had been in operation for just over a month, and was found to cover a distance of 100 km – 210 km on a single charge.
His most ambitious project was building the buses from scratch and equipping them with solar panels and batteries.
“As I am speaking to you now at our workshop, we are building a 12-seater bus which can cover up to 200 kilometres on one charge,” Gajibo explained.
“Before the end of this month we are going to unveil that bus, which will be the first of its kind in the whole of Nigeria,” he said, adding that his workshop had capacity to produce 15 buses a month.
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Mustapha Gajibo’s Challenges in his Invention
One of the first major challenge Mustapha faced was skepticism. People barely believed he knew what he was doing let alone partner with him, but that was shortlived.
Gajibo also initially had only one charging station that is solar powered.
Also, he is faced with foreign currency problems that strains his importation of parts. So, he plans on alternatively, outsourcing them in Nigeria.
According to him “We have been substituting some materials with local materials to bring our costs down and maximise profit.”
Funding has also been one of Gajibo’s biggest challenges just like in the case of any entrepreneur.
But, all these was before his dream of whole designing and manufacturing of vehicles transformed into reality, at his brand-new workshop in Abuja,
Benefits of Mustapha Gajibo’s Solar Minibus Building
It has proven to be beneficial in addressing two specific and major concerns, such as – 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 states.
Mustapha Electric and solar minibuses in pictures
The Future
This young man hopes to keep expanding electric buses in Nigeria and beyond and that his company was contacted by interested people in his project from “Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau.”.
Conclusion
Gajibo’s work has proven what can be done if only there’s a dream and a tenacity to work.
It has also enabled him to showcase a different image of Borno state located near Chad which has suffered decades of insurgency at the hands of terrorists.