The potential for electric vehicles in Nigeria

Nigeria

Ainojie “Alex” Irune, president and CEO of Oando Clean Energy (OCEL), talks to The Energy Year about the work the company is doing to introduce electric vehicles into the Nigerian market and specific challenges the country is facing as it begins its energy transition. Oando Clean Energy invests in climate-friendly and bankable energy solutions and projects across Africa.

What is the strategy behind the electric vehicle project you are developing in Lagos?
Lagos is the most populous city in sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of over 20 million. In the last decade, the population of vehicles on Lagos roads has quadrupled. With over 3,000 mass transit buses operating in the state, Lagos contributes 44,000 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per day. This makes it a suitable development ground for sustainable technologies that can be replicated across Africa.
For us at OCEL, developing an electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure ecosystem is less about the vehicles and more about the 3 million-7 million people commuting across Lagos daily. It’s about the impact commuting has on the environment and how we can significantly reduce emissions by converting the state’s current municipal transport systems.
To this end, we have partnered with Lagos State to drive the transition of the state’s municipal transport system to improve air quality, reduce toxic emissions and, more importantly, create a backbone for electric transport infrastructure across the city. The infrastructure will form the artery of tomorrow’s EV utilisation in Nigeria by providing charging stations, servicing, spare parts, skills development, knowledge transfer and more.
We are confident that this will create a spillover effect and accelerate electric mobility possibilities within the state and the country. Moreover, once we realise this milestone, it becomes easier to replicate the model elsewhere. It is gratifying that others see the potential. We are already in talks with the municipality of Abuja, as well as engaging some of the neighbouring states such as Ogun for a similar project.
We have approached this with the understanding that it will be a steep learning curve. First and foremost, we will have to develop capacity and capability, understand the terrain, work with our partners to proffer solutions as problems arise and develop not just the supply chain but the talent to support EV existence and efficient functioning in this dynamic ecosystem.
At Oando, we welcome audacious projects. We are unafraid of being the first and have an excellent and experienced team that understands risk management and the organisation’s capacity to take calculated risks in the face of whatever challenges may be ahead of us. So, we are confident about our abilities to manage the complexities around new technology introductions, more so within Nigeria’s unique and sometimes challenging terrain.

How will Africa’s energy transition differ from that of other continents?
The concept of a just transition means different things to different economies. In Africa, there are over 640 million people without access to energy. While Africa is home to 17% of the world’s population, it accounts for only 4% of global power supply investment.
In some developed countries, EV prices are on par with that of combustion engine vehicles. In America, we have seen home installations of solar energy systems that allow people not only to contribute power to the grid but also garner credit as they make these contributions. So, we have seen systems that have evolved enough that well-capitalised countries, companies and individuals can leverage them and create a positive economy. However, in Africa, there are certain barriers to achieving this immediately, and we must consider this in our energy transition plan.
Therefore, it would be unfair to ask someone that can barely eat or has no access to power to invest in a solar panel, especially when they are sitting on untapped gas reserves in the region of trillions of cubic feet. Africa has a significant number of natural resources, and we must be deliberate about how we harness the resources within our reach, such as our vast gas reserves, as well as identify opportunities to produce energy in more carbon-friendly ways.
Being part of an industry that directly contributes to greenhouse emissions and global warming, we have a responsibility to create a path that enables a just transition as a country to a sustainable mode of operation. We must acknowledge our role, take responsibility and ensure we commit and implement the necessary actions to limit our carbon footprint.

What factors are required to accelerate Nigeria’s renewable energy capacity?
We have abundant solar and wind power resources in Nigeria, which we could significantly benefit from. However, to accelerate Nigeria’s renewable energy capacity, we must first take steps to understand the ecosystem and topology of our land and where the sun and wind are available, and then make networks as local as possible.
Africa has the greatest advantage when it comes to sunshine. The pertinent question we must ask ourselves on the continent is: why aren’t we manufacturing solar panels, and why don’t we have the infrastructure to utilise this resource? There is a strong need to focus on backward integration and develop manufacturing capabilities. Our focus should be on how we produce these infrastructures locally.
The same applies to wind energy. We believe our coastal areas have a significant amount of wind that could be crucial to energy generation. We also have a substantial amount of waste, both organic and inorganic, and we must start engineering ways to not only convert the waste to energy, but institute waste disposal habits that increase the efficiency of waste-to-energy production.
Education has a role to play in this aspect. We must examine the needs of communities and figure out ways to implement strategies that provide context and meaning for people. For example, building an electricity grid across Nigeria is perhaps not as financially expedient nor efficient as captive power directed at local communities.
In addition, the projects need to be bankable and scalable. A critical question we should ask ourselves is: how can we transfer these projects across the value chain, replicate them in other geographical regions and adapt them to different community needs? Finally, we must have a good idea of the expected outcomes of our actions to propel productivity within the economy and empower Nigerians.

How viable is introducing hydrogen to the energy mix in Nigeria and the region?
Hydrogen is interesting because of its complexity in terms of production and utilisation. It is probably the most environmentally friendly renewable energy so far, with a lot of potential.
However, I worry not just about the capital intensity but also about the scalability and availability of the technology for effective deployment and utilisation in Africa. The transformation process may be significantly more costly for scalable adoption on the continent. Still, we see hydrogen as part of the energy mix in the future.

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