Oando Clean Energy (OCEL), the renewable energy subsidiary of Oando Energy Resources, on Sunday announced that the company will be matching the efforts of the federal government through the purchase and deployment of an additional 50 new electric buses.
This, it said, is in addition to the fleet of 50 buses already committed to and ordered for Lagos State, making it a total of 100 new buses that the company will be deploying across the nation.
A statement from the organisation said the announcement was made at the ongoing Conference of the Parties (COP28) event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
On May 24, 2023, OCEL said it launched its sustainable transport initiative with a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) in collaboration with Lagos State through the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA).
At a side event in the Nigeria pavilion, the company’s Executive Vice President (EVP), Ademola Ogunbanjo, it said, spoke of the successful completion of the 90-day PoC phase.
“During the PoC, we rolled out two electric mass transit buses, and they plied four routes covering over 43,800 kilometres, carrying over 73,000 passengers, saving bus operators 21,000 litres of diesel and mitigating 57.8 tons in CO2 emissions within the state,” he said.
He said that the company’s sustainable transport initiative is now being progressed to a pilot phase of 50 buses and 2,000 buses at full rollout for Lagos state.
“On the back of the successful PoC and deliberations with several state governments, OCEL will match the federal government’s commitment of 100 electric buses towards reducing the country’s carbon emissions.
“The distribution of the buses will be as follows: 50 buses for a pilot phase in Lagos state, the remaining 50 buses will be spread across Cross River, Kaduna, Edo states and Abuja.
“This action directly supports the announcement made by President Bola Tinubu, in his address during the Nigeria Carbon Market and Electric Buses Rollout Programme on the margins of the COP28 climate summit.
“The president explained the strategic initiative of his administration in rolling out 100 electric buses aims to reduce Nigeria’s carbon footprint and modernise the country’s transportation systems, a position that Oando had advocated and demonstrated over the last year,” it stressed.
Recognising the critical role of private sector players in the country’s energy transition journey, it quoted the Director General, National Council on Climate Change (NCCC) Dr Salisu Dahiru, as saying at a COP28 side event that it was heartwarming to see that some of the key players in the oil and gas industry were even ahead of government.
“Oando is ahead of everybody, we want to see their approach replicated by other private sector players, and on the part of government we will deliver the conducive environment that will allow the private sector to thrive,” Dahiru was quoted as saying.
In making the announcement, President of Oando Clean Energy, Dr Ainojie Irune, said that the strategic ambition was to use Lagos State as a launch pad and eventually roll out nationwide.
“Through our partnership with Lagos state, we led the scaling up of sustainable mass transit solutions in the country. Our strategic ambition was to use Lagos state as a launch pad and eventually roll out nationwide.
“A year in, we have realised a successful PoC and seen buy-in at a national scale via the federal government’s public commitment to purchase 100 electric buses.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of sustainable transport in Nigeria and delighted to support the efforts of federal government by matching their commitment to deploy 100 electric buses for the country.
“We are particularly elated that the government is aligned with Oando’s strategic vision in creating a clean and eco-friendly transportation system for Nigerians,” he said.
Earlier, Oando used the COP28 event to showcase to an international audience the actions it’s taking to push its sustainability agenda.
The company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Cross River state government to set up an Electric Vehicles (EV) assembly plant, supply EVs for mass transportation and build a 100mw wind plant for power generation.
It also announced an MoU with CarbonAi, a world-leading provider of full-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction services, which will partner with the company on a range of initiatives, including the commercialisation of flared gas from the company’s oil and gas operations.
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
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