 A silent motoring and energy transition revolution that the Nigerian middle class is yet to plug into. I am Bola Oba Hafiz. It's plus politics. They profound improvements in EVs that is electric vehicles with longer lasting batteries that can now go up to 600 km per charge. The little or no environmental pollution that the ice that is internal combustion engines in conventional vehicles emit which has made governments in environmentally responsible societies to set dates for the elimination of ice vehicles on their roads. The increased productivity that the EVs which are smart objects like your smartphones and can be leveraged as Internet of Things tools by owners to governize increased productivity even while they are on the road. Far more importantly, the dramatically falling price of EVs, the average price of EVs sold by BYD, the world's largest EVs manufacturer in China last year was 12,000 US dollars. Indeed, there are Nigerian manufacturers that are now advertising tear rubber, quote-unquote, that's the newly assembled EV, SUVs and I-Loss type talks for half of the prices of say Japanese or American equivalents. The unfolding EV good news for the Nigerian motoring public does not stop at the competitive pricing level. The rural electrification agency, REA and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure and Ascending have signed the memorandum of understanding MOU for the establishment of a 150 million US dollars lithium ion battery, the chief component of EVs manufacturing and processing factory already importantly putting up its plant in Nassarowa state. The question is why are the Nigerian car purchasing middle class not enthusiastically ramping up the purchase of EVs with all the generated technical productivity, environmental pricing and local lithium battery-conferring exchange generation advantages? Joining us virtually to probe into the question is the Director-General of National Automotive Design and Development Council NADDC Mr. Oluemimo Joseph Osanipi and literally live in the studio with me is the President-CEO of SAGLEF Incorporated, a US electric vehicle manufacturing company with a new assembly plant in the MOTA IKORODU division of Lagos State. Dr. Oluemimo Osanipi, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to PlusPolitics. Thank you brother, thank you so much for having me. Pleasure. DG, good evening. Good evening, thank you for having me. It is not too late to say congratulations, congratulations. Thank you. We wish you all the best in your tunnel, we want to believe that you will leave a legacy that will be so profound that the world cannot discount in us. But how would you want to start? What would you want to tell us about electric vehicle technology and the position of NADDC? Electric vehicle, that is one of the new energy vehicles that is available all over. The global is being embraced. Nigeria is not left out. Nigeria is gradually embracing it because that is the future of the mobility. Electric vehicle is the future of mobility. We are already embracing that because of many reasons. Number one, the climate effect of emission. Electric vehicle, especially when it is battery, is zero emission. So it is attractive for anyone and for Nigeria to embrace it. Apart from that, maintenance costs. You can see the engine parts that are an IC vehicle we have, they are into thousands. But electric vehicle has only other traction that is powered by the vehicle. Then with the battery. The number of parts you have to change at interval regularly are very, very limited. So you can drive the maintenance cost by almost 70%, reduce it by 70%. So also the fueling part of it. The cost of fuel is going up. And with electric vehicle, when you compare the cost of charging, that is the cost of energy and the cost of powering ICE through AGO or through PMS. You know that the cost compared to EV is so high. So EV also reduce that one dramatically. And that is enough advantage or enough benefit that we attract motor use and motorways to patronize or move to migrate from IC to EV. Thank you very much. We also embrace it out. I come back to you, DG. Dog, with you, maybe you are a medical doctor. Yes, I am. And one way or the other, how did you, your love for electric vehicle, how did it start before we even get into what inspired you becoming an industrialist, setting up an electric vehicle assembly plant in Nigeria all the way from the U.S.? Let's give it a human face first. The short version. Honestly speaking, I was just one of those kids that could never make up their mind whether I wanted to be a doctor or an engineer. Honestly, the last day of jam, my dad called me and said, you know you have to submit this form today, right? Pick one. So after listening to him, I said, okay, let me pick medicine. But it so happened that after I finished medical school, I went to the U.S. and specialized in internal medicine, also specialized in clinical informatics, which is all the healthcare information technology in healthcare. And I've always been a big believer in the danger to our planet of climate change. So I've always understood the need for renewables. So me being partly also just an entrepreneurial, you know, guy, I felt that there are avenues in renewables for entrepreneurship. So just that was my segue into tech. And I just basically kept looking into this. I've been involved in the real estate business and other endeavors in the U.S. and I just felt along with my partners in Saglev who actually makes electric vehicles in the U.S., also in Nigeria like myself. We just got together and said, look, you can make an EV company. I will make an EV company. There's no point doing this separately. We'll do it together. And that's really how Saglev came about. But we thought that it was in the emerging markets where the opportunities are. I'll come back to you. Let me go back to the digital. I'll come back to you on something very interesting. I really want to know how, you know, when we live in the diaspora, we have a very rustic, very backward perception of Nigeria, many of us, because we cause feed ourselves some misinformation about Nigeria. I'm sitting there thinking, because I was lifting the diaspora, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, okay, how did you then cross the Rubicon of believing that electric vehicles would ultimately be accepted in the Niger market. But let me go to the DG for the next step. DG, I just want to know, we know that Ria Anaseni at the last COP28 signed an MOU with a Chinese concern, an international manufacturer entity that is setting up a plant now in Nassarawa state. And there is no way that lithium ion battery could be made in Nigeria that some Nigerian entrepreneurs would not think, oh, about time to announce the inherent opportunities of electric vehicle manufacturing or components manufacturing in some respects. What would be the strategy? I think I have a confession to make here, and the confession, Mr. DG, is that I was one of those in my capacity as a director of a company that consults for the NADDC. I was one of those that wrote the curriculum for electric vehicles. So an average Nigerian watching now may not know that there is a detailed curriculum for electric vehicles to transition the average roadside mechanic to working on electric vehicles to somebody who is doing a PhD program say in a formal academic environment. But this is not about me. This is about you as the person that wears the authority of the NADDC to intimate the Nigerian public with the opportunity. So I am sitting there wanting to ask you how is the NADDC planning to ensure the opportunity of this domestication of one of the major components of electric vehicle manufacturing in Nigeria? Thank you for the question. Number one, you will know that electric vehicle, the major components in electric vehicle is the battery. In fact, battery accounts for between 40% to 50% of the cost of an electric vehicle. So what that means is if Nigeria is investing in production of electric vehicle in production of battery it literally means that gradually we are investing in manufacturing of electric vehicle in Nigeria because by producing the battery itself we have contributed up to 40% of the component that is contributed about 40% of the component. That means the component, the battery can give us 40% of the total cost of the vehicle, which is local components increased in our local component. So that is very vital. Producing battery in Nigeria is vital. And again apart from it increase our local components we can be able to drag down the cost of manufacturing a vehicle an electric vehicle. And if you can do that it means we can translate that one to, we can transfer that one to the buyer. That means the cost of acquiring an electric vehicle in Nigeria can also go down. We really appreciate that this big investment can start by producing battery for Nigeria. One, what other thing we are trying to do just as you mentioned the curriculum development which we call National Occupational National Occupational Standard that standard is being critic and the validation has been done by the time we are through it is going to serve as the basis for training Nigerians the artisans and different level of training that are the artisans, the fresh graduates and those who already have the experience in EV those who don't want to manufacture EV those who don't want to work on EV so we know that we get to a point where we need to bridge the gap in the knowledge that is the people that are working on EV and we need them to acquire the basic knowledge have the basic expertise in agriculture that is why we came up with this NOS National Occupational Standard which we are critic and which the validation has been done so this also we add in increasing the awareness as well as help people to adopt help citizens to adopt EV thank you very much dog before I went to digi I put I made a remark that I would want it to respond to you know the misinformation in diaspora technology and social media is now helping to bridge the gap but about the time that you must have started flirting with electric vehicle social media was not big there and for you to have thought that okay I want to go into this and I want to take it to Nigeria you must be at a very adventurous visioner well actually I have to confess there is no point I used to be the typical diaspora that is totally scared of Nigeria I think counting I think I have been in the United States now about 32 years or so something like that and out of that 32 years if you add all the days I have spent in Nigeria there is probably less than 8 weeks even well maybe now 12 weeks total before I started this but again due to social media due to just being incusative I participated in trade missions from companies I just happened to have an interest in entrepreneurship generally so I came to Nigeria I met with the US consulate US ambassadors they told us a lot about Nigeria at that point I started realizing the story that you get and the story that is the truth there is a gap I am just saying that there is a mismatch but when things happen it gets blown out of proportion and yes there are some problems and there are some concerns the security issues are there corruption issue is there but at the end of the day look I was educated here and I tell people that at the end of the day when I got to the United States I had colleagues who were owing $3,400,000 for medical school for medical school and my own debt was zero so at the end of the day as a diaspora person you can think up down left right center you still owe the country something the country invested in you and again the joking part of it is that look you are going to eat burger to the point where you can't even stand it anymore you are going to want swallow you are going to want all these things the emotional persona in you would naturally have some point but things are changing people are seeing and all my friends are shocked that I am here as a matter of fact I do live here for the most part and I do go home maybe 2,3 in fact I should not use that word because I go to the United States 2,3 weeks at time do meetings attend to urgent businesses and all that and then I am back here for the last 2 years that's how it's been so I haven't spent a whole lot of time in the U.S. so this is changing I see a lot of friends who are saying wow I cannot believe you are doing this because you used to be one of the worst so you know again I come back to you I come back to you on how your flirtation now that has become a lifelong and hope transgenerational love with if you started I come back to you because I really want to give this a human contest and also use the experiences of people like you to hold the Niger middle class the Niger middle class is still what you say definitely you know all those ifs and so but you were at the very margins of electric vehicle motoring you had a kind of experience that happened in Nigerian let me go back to the DG the NAEDC I must state is one of the national treasures that I want to believe has been changed media wise I don't suppose many Nigerians even get to know the strategic importance of the NAEDC in the quality in the quality of the motoring experience they get many Nigerians don't know how do you intend to engage the Nigerian public and let them see especially the Nigerian motoring public and let them see the all gamut of things you do to protect them by the quality and standard of the vehicles you allow to be imported into Nigeria and assembled in Nigeria the quality and standard of the motoring experience they enjoy that many don't know that even far beyond standard organization of Nigeria the NAEDC is the first line of quality assurance when it comes to vehicular objects coming to this country what are your strategies Mr. Deji yes thank you for that question because it is something that we really we know how we are addressing it because a lot of Nigerians are not even aware of the assistance of the country and a lot of Nigerians are not aware of what we are doing and what we have achieved so we is part of what we are doing we have started some campaign and in the next few weeks we notice that we start telling Nigerians what and what we are being doing and what we have achieved so especially in the area of CNG and EV and generally what are and what we have achieved in the last few years so just as you mentioned apart from test and standard that we have established working with standard organization of Nigeria we have done a lot and even apart from that we are trying to work on ensuring that the material used for local parts or local components is standard before you now process the material to become parts and for that also we have started building we have a material test center in Saria and we have component parts test center in Nenugong that we soon be commissioned also we have a missions test center in Lagos State University of Science with that one also we soon come to life so all this we have been doing in order to make we are doing in order to ensure that the quality of the vehicle that are coming to Nigeria and the quality of vehicle that are on Nigerian role means international standard so also to protect we are doing that also especially the missions center to protect the environment so all this we know they are not being known by Nigeria but again we are using social media we are using electronic media and then the traditional newspaper all this we are going to employ in educating Nigeria or bringing our services to the notice of Nigeria so we will start that in the next few weeks Nigeria we know more about what we have done, what we are doing and what we are about to do we will come back to you Mr.DG especially in the particular area of human capital development and the inherent opportunities that the council presents to the Nigerian youth especially in the area of human capital development I will come back to you doc we will go we will soon get to the nitty gritty of how Sarglev came into being and why he could do Nigeria but I like to always give the human story element because people can identify in many respects with stories like that so how did I used the word flirtation initially but I know you are in love now how did you graduate from okay so I want to crave your indulgence to tell you that without the NADDC I don't want to forget to say this without the NADDC Sarglev would not be here I think it's important to say that so that people can hear without the NADDC Sarglev would not be here because we did not even know in a way to the NADDC there is also an investment 1000% investment conduit to fund the investment conduit to Nigeria not directly the foreign direct but you see we have these ideas and we are in the united states and we do manufacture cars in the united states by the way we have these ideas of what we want to do but we don't know how to do it we don't know what the policy is the NADDC is who has guided us step by step to where we are they are the ones that are pointed out to us now it's a very interesting story of how we got here as you know we started out in Ghana and the things that happened in Nigeria worldwide started it was the NADDC that said okay you guys you have the competitive business environment because every time they will talk to us we will tell them but you know Nigerians have pretty much free petrol and we don't know that they are ready for EV it was at that point they literally called us up and said look guys give the excuse again because that excuse is not valid anymore so I just wanted to bring that up real quick very important point to make sure you give but ultimately the removal of subsidy yes did it and presents the business opportunity speaks to the fact that now alternative energy yes some of that because you have to understand that while petrol was 50 naira a litre in Nigeria it was over 850 naira a litre today petrol is 1340 naira a litre in Ghana is even more expensive in Abidja so it's not a matter of the business case even if petrol was 50 naira a litre you would still have the benefits of using an EV and we can go into talking about environmental the cost of smart technology the ease of repair the ease of maintenance and the reduction in the total cost of ownership you have all these benefits in the EV so but not going to your question yes the reason you see I can relate to how Nigerians feel now that oh there's no charging Nigeria has been a country that has suffered tremendously under the lack of power we still are in this conundrum so anytime you mention anything electric the first thing in Nigerian is just natural the human mind tells you no it's not possible but however every step that I've seen here I went through it in the united states to give you a story very close friend of mine was the very first person that actually acquired a tesla my classmates we've been classmates actually since primary school he so that's why I tell you this was in 2012 the very number 27 tesla that came off the lines we drove that car but I want to tell you this when he picked up that car in Nebraska to get to Atlanta it took 4 days the 12 of you well I was smart enough to let him do that problem I escaped it because somehow he's an anesthesiologist I'm an internist so his time is more so I escaped that but I knew he was picking up the car and we were all excited to see the you know to test drive this thing but incidentally 4 days to move from Nebraska to Atlanta because you have to stop there are chargers but at that time the charging system was very immature even though there were tesla superchargers but to drive from Nebraska to Atlanta the path so I can relate because I lived it in the united states where there was this is early 2012 where you have an EV but you can't charge so when people are telling me there's no charging so again I want to assure Nigerians that you see what we went through in 2012 in 2 to 3 years you're not going to even remember all those things because all those problems are actually already being solved I've driven an electric vehicle here a year and a half every day a fleet actually well don't tell people I drive a fleet of EV because I know I know you are a couple you've been to my office a couple of times I have a confession to make when it was about setting up sarglev factory in motor ecorudu division one of the companies where I'm a director actually selected young Nigerian technicians we call them automotive mechatronics technicians we trained fundamentally they are still in training because they want to expose them to global standards so they are still in training but I haven't said that I think it's imperative journalistic ethics demand that I make that evolution so again what happens is I can relate but the good news is that in a very short time this Tesla supercharger was all over to the point where you could easily drive that car pretty much nationwide on electric charge now I actually right now hardly drive an internal combustion engine vehicle we don't 80% of all the charging for electric vehicles will actually happen at home repeat that 80% of electric vehicle charging period in this country in any country is going to happen at home it's like that in the US it's like that so there are other little areas where you have to make some adjustments you know the irony for me I'm sitting there thinking most of us notwithstanding whatever may be a perception of the reality of public power utility most of us don't sleep in the dark we make arrangements and the same power with which we sleep can also I'm not going to romanticize it charging equipment are still relatively expensive we'll get back to that let me go to DG that is where we go in the direction thank you for still keeping this good time with us like I said when I was going going out the last time I was with you I know that the council that's the NADDC has a robust human capital development program that crosses from and holding the average roadside mechanic we call them the Babamufus or the H.O.B.s and holding them from ignorance to being able to work with modern vehicles that are largely computers on wheels don't even let's talk about EVs now a modern automobile are computers on wheels you have vehicles now averaging about 7 ECMs electric control models some for more we know that apart from turning those artisinal artisinal mechanics you have programs that mentor on the graduates in universities you are partnering with some tertiary institutions that is actually why you have the emission facility in the south west in a tertiary institution in Lagos state Lagos state university of technology now former Lagos state polytechnic how do you want to tell an average young person interested like he was flirting with technology how do you want to tell an average young person on how the NADDC can hush them into realizing the dream of being automotive mechatricians or indeed somebody that works on or that can double into the world of EVs your floor let me start from known to unknown in this for this particular question when I say known is from ICE how did we manage or how we managing the ICE maintenance currently we realize that even the IC vehicle are changing some of the technician the ones we call mechanics the technician some of them train about 20, 15 years ago and the technology has actually changed so what we have done is to organize training for most for the technicians across the country and as of today we have trained over 10,000 Nigerian youths we have trained over 10,000 physicians in training them we ensure that we move them from the type of vehicle they started with we introduce a new vehicle the new technology and we let them keep abreast of the app names and new technology that we have in auto now so we have done the training across Nigeria we use our we have what we call sector ski council so we have the sector ski consists of almost 17, 18 different agencies people that have experience in different areas of auto lecturers, people that assemblers, artisans all these people we bring we brought them together and they form what we call sector ski and they develop a curriculum that we are using we train all the artisans we train artisans that we call the roadside we train first graduates in Midas so that they can design they can design parts they can design different things using Midas technology so we have done all these for both skill and unskilled artisans and skilled professionals in auto feed and that's what we intend to also do with the electric vehicle we realize that electric vehicle you need to be abreast with the current technology concerning that and that's why we have started by first of all developing the curriculum that curriculum is going to be the guide for everybody that want to play parts, that want to play road those as you have mentioned you discovered doctor doctor was trained as a medical doctor but today is now playing a major role in production of electric vehicle in Nigeria the same way because of the interest and because of SPARTY has acquired outside the classroom the same way we are trying to do we are doing with EV there are some people that we acquire this experience not in the forward of university but we want them to be grounded that's why we have come up with these national occupational standards concerning the development of the curriculum for EV so we have done that and any moment from now again we will be embarking on national work training of youth we are already in the process and we are going to introduce our youth to the common things in EV the common things because in EV you don't have plenty parts so we need to let them know how do you charge what different kind of charging connectors that are available then all the little details that they need to know and then how can you maintain an electric vehicle these are things we are going to we are going to partner with people that are playing in that field we are going to partner with professors engineers we are going to partner with engineers that are part of the professional engineer and also the vehicle assemblers or vehicle manufacturers all these people will bring them together and we are going to organize those training and let Nigeria know how to handle EV vehicle where we did the ICE after training sometime we give them some we like quality comb diagnostic machine and with diagnostic machine I was in one stage recently and when they were talking to us one of them mentioned that we have been able to move them from analog to digital mechanics so the same way we are going to do in EV thank you thank you very much when you left tutorial you moved past you know the initial anxiety level now well yes just picking up from where so those anxieties that you had about charging those are normal it actually has a name it's called range anxiety because you are worried where am I going to charge I have 400 kilometers 400 kilometers is a lot so 400 kilometers 400 kilometers we take you to as far as actually I throw out some data shortly to make people really understand this what 400 kilometers is but haven't said that what has happened is every concern that I see people having have lived through this I can relate to it and I understand you know how these are very legitimate concerns but the good thing is that you take comfort in the fact that these are problems that other people have gone through and people have actually walked their way through solving this for example charging I have a charger at home it cost let me just throw out some numbers if I were an Uber driver and I have our smallest product for 4 hours you get 300 kilometers on that car it cost 2500 Naira to charge that car if you have the same vehicle in internal combustion car 10 to 12000 Naira to fuel per day and you are not going to finish that because when we have been here on the ground collecting data for going on 3 and a half years now now Uber drivers don't even drive 200 kilometers so you will not even finish that charge not only that if you have a car that has a 300 kilometer range and you are in Lagos you are not going to charge but more than once a week guaranteed I don't charge more than once a week if I'm within town so it's remarkable it really relieves if you're doing in-city driving because don't forget that the entire everywhere we go to in Lagos is about 22 by 24 kilometers it fits in a box of 22 by 24 we don't drive a lot we are just spending all our time in hold up in Abuja they drive a little bit more but it's not a whole lot so yeah people need to but again these concerns are valid and our job is to actually make people understand yes your concern is valid but now look at it this way we have to educate the public which is why we need the media we have to partner with the media very tightly to educate the public and make them understand because the truth is that the gas station is at home mostly not where you you have to just look at it you don't have to go and be curious no you don't have to and again people talk about cost let me throw out some numbers to you this is not a commercial we just want to talk about EVs so an electric charger comes with by the time the EV is anywhere upwards of $25,000 it will come with its own charger 100% even if it were lower than that and I'm just giving throwing out a number a charger that you would put at home you can easily get for $300-400 a charger vehicle at home yes the charger itself and we have trained technicians that will install it for you so some of the lower vehicles the more affordable vehicles may not come with a charger but you can easily have a charger by us installed for you at home it's not expensive not only that what we have done as a company is we have actually provided a charging platform we have already signed contracts this is not a commercial people can find out there are malls already in Lagos where we have banks of chargers so that if you are a right share driver and you don't have a home where you can install a charger you don't have steady power at home where you can park your car charge it for 4 hours and you can park it at 8pm at night by 12 midnight your car is charged you are ready for your next day's work 2500 Naira vs. 20 because if you are using a mid-size it will be 20,000 a day it's for utility very cool much more so our story is not just about an EV our story is very much about jobs because don't forget that a lot of the right share drivers quit because they can't afford to pay 10,000 Naira a day they quit driving because how do i know that part of our testing we started ordering right share rides by ourselves we just wanted to know apart from paying right share drivers to get data we were actually entering right share in Lagos before we even started using our own cars for the drivers right share or right hailing right hailing this same thing there is a difference between American English and right share what we understand right share to be in this part of the world is that we live in the same neighborhood we are in the same direction we still want to be west in this thing to us is just the same thing the same difference between boot and bonnet okay English it's just English but on a more serious note we find out that these drivers benefit it is about jobs it is about making a living it is about a guy who is spending so much on a vehicle that the vehicle itself he cannot afford it now by the time you give him a piece of equipment that the cost of maintenance is 50% to 60% less and I tell people look I cannot compete with a Tokumboka but where I beat the Tokumboka is this before your Tokumboka reaches your hand from the port you are spending money because that car has already spent 200,000 miles somewhere you are already spending money on it to be honest with you I was shocked about 2 weeks ago when I saw the advertisement gallery of one of the local EV assemblers and I saw a spot a spot utility vehicle a typical spot utility vehicle that if you looking at it ostensibly it speaks to the design the look and feel of a Japanese or North American spot utility vehicle assembled in Lagos and the cost is about half of an average Japanese spot utility vehicle that goes for say 50 million Naira and I was thinking so can you chip back well you'd be surprised so one of the things actually one of the hardest parts we had to figure out was how do we get these cars affordable to even come and do this in Nigeria that was very difficult we had to use my contacts my partner's contacts in the United States to find the right vehicle at the right price and when we were coming we had specific vehicles we wanted to compete against I'm not going to mention anybody's name given the paranoia given the paranoia that is now pervading Europe because I was reading an article in the economics magazine about 2-3 months ago and Europe is alarmed now that EVs from a particular country are literally sweeping out and they come with the best of smart technologies Internet of Things technologies like you may even forget your smartphone at home and the vehicle will serve as your smartphone will make you run your businesses will make you run things at home maybe you forgot the cooker let me go back to DG for his epilogue Mr DG we just have as the person that personifies the standards for vehicular objects in Nigeria the person that personifies the institution that also says standard for how young Nigerians are trained to become specialist auto maintenance and auto maintenance technicians and engineers how would you want to sign out from this from this show today we are looking forward to many other opportunities for you when we have issues relating to automotive standards but how would you want to sign up today sir I want to sign out by assuring Nigeria that room was not built in a day just as Dr Fahlai mentioned we have to start from somewhere and with what we have on ground we can really even scale faster than some of these developed works when it comes to adoption first thing we have to first of all disabuse people's mind by providing the right information to people because there is this knowledge a lot of Nigerians as we said in the beginning did not know or she don't know that you can actually charge an EV car at home because it depends on the size of the battery some of the car you can use AC alternative currents just like the way you charge your phone the same way you can charge your vehicle at home and if you want to use fast charger some of the assembler of EV charging fast charging devices which you can still use outside I was at the place one day and I was there with electric vehicle with EV vehicle and the top person that we think we know about electric vehicle was Marvel I was asking am I sure this is real electric vehicle and I said yes I have to take came band that truly we could push electric vehicle on Nigerian road so this is first thing we need to address bridge the knowledge gap let Nigerian road this is possible despite the fact that we have power challenges but we know despite the power challenges we still charge our phone we still use electricity at home we still use electricity in our offices the same can be done here again on building infrastructure we know that some of the reason why the adoption is slow in Nigeria is the non availability of infrastructure and we know what someone have to start it and that's why we are happy with SAAGLEF for starting it and many others that have done a lot in pushing for adoption of EV because some people will say we are breaking infrastructure we don't have the vehicle I want to buy the vehicle but there is no infrastructure that means we have to start either by providing the vehicle the investor will come and invest in infrastructure first of all start with the infrastructure but what we are doing is that we are building gradually and that is a very good thing he has mentioned something about cost we know because of ownership because of owning an electric vehicle is far far cheaper compared to cost of owning an EIC because we are only looking at cost of acquisition we are not talking about cost of maintenance we are not talking about cost of powering it but when you bring together a vision cost and cost of powering it daily you will realize that electric vehicle is far far cheaper thank you very much Mr.DG thank you so so much we look forward to engaging you some other times especially when it comes to enlightening motoring public thank you doc I really want to use this opportunity your signing of opportunity to let you speak to the Niger diaspora I've got friends who make sure and as an ex-diasporian thank you I've got friends who make sure that their parents sleep they make sure that their parents don't sleep in darkness every day they make sure that they have a car for mommy and daddy that should take them around many of them actually have cars parked in Nigeria and many of them are not even aware that their return is like you assembling assembling electric vehicles in Nigeria because I know if many of them were to be aware that their assembly vehicle of their EV assembly plants in Nigeria you know what I don't want mommy to go and be curing when there is foreshortage or daddy to go and be curing when so what do you want to looking at your camera so what I want to tell the diaspora is that Nigeria that you see today is a totally different country when I left there was virtually no middle class there's actually a bigger middle class in Nigeria going back to mommy and daddy believe me you do not want mommy and daddy to drive a car that is going to give them problem and the mechanic is going to be their best friend the solution is to give them actually an EV because now you're solving that reliability problem you're also solving the power problem and then you're also solving the sending driver to go and drive to go and queue in the gas station but more importantly I want to put your mind as Wala and I were saying before the program there is an actual investment opportunity for diasporans because we all have cousins who need help and they reach out to us but there is now an opportunity to invest in the renewable industry and specifically electric cars because now somebody can actually make a living using an electric car in ride hailing using an electric car in mobility using an electric car in mass transport their employment opportunities but it goes back to that old saying of teach people how to fish rather than not giving them feeding for a meal teach a man how to fish and you feed him for the rest of his life thank you very much doc it's wonderful having you here maybe because I'm an automotive person with one heart this is where we'll be wrapping it up for today I am Gola Oba