By: John Bassey.
A Chinese company Wecan, has sought collaboration with the Kebbi State Government to establish an electric-powered vehicle assembly plant in the state.
Dr Shadi Sabeh, the coy’s Country Representative in Nigeria, made this known during a courtesy visit to Gov. Nasir Idris at Government House, Birnin Kebbi.
He said: “Your Excellency, we are here in Kebbi to seek partnership with your government to be able to build an assembly plant for electric bikes, electric tricycles and possibly scale up to electric vehicles, depending on how the partnership works out.
“There are a lot of attendant advantages. First of all, we feel that there is going to be a high level of transfer of knowledge and technology from China, where we are actually working, and from Kebbi, Nigeria.
“Secondly, we are looking at the environmental sustainability that this will bring. We can have different activities that are looking on; apart from the electric vehicles, we are also looking at incorporating solar manufacturing plants within the assembly plant.
“That’s why we ‘ve been able to ship some of our products all the way from China and we have brought them for you to physically inspect.”
The country rep. said the aim of the project was to see how the Kebbi government could commit to purchasing 1,000 pieces of electric tricycles, “we do know that that has been done by Prof. Babagana Zulum of Borno State.
“Gov. Zulum has acquired a good number of electric vehicles, tricycles, and bikes, but all without an assembly plant. Recently, in Sokoto State 250 of these products were procured without an assembly plant.
“The difference here is that we will not only sell in Kebbi, but we will make sure it’s a win-win situation, where we sell our bikes and provide an assembling plant that will be able to create job opportunities for Indigenous people of Kebbi State.
“We are looking at a situation where we will bring the Kebbi indigene, where they would be able to take over the assembling plant and to position Kebbi as the electric vehicles hub of not only Northern Nigeria but Nigeria and Africa as a corridor to the West African States.”
He assured that Kebbi would be able to accomplish its dream of becoming an economic player in the electric vehicles business.
Responding, Gov. Nasir Idris appreciated the company for finding Kebbi State worthy to be the hub of electric vehicle assembling state not only in Nigeria but across Africa.
The governor assured the visitors of the readiness of his administration to partner with any investor willing to invest in the state, adding that the present government was ever ready to create an enabling environment for investment to thrive.
“We have been looking for foreign investors to come to Kebbi and invest, the government will create an enabling environment for you to operate peacefully.
“Whatever is required, as a government, I want to assure you that we will do it to ensure that this partnership has come to stay.
“Kebbi is actually blessed with abundant important natural resources; precisely, we have lithium, gold, copper, iron, and limestone, among others,” he noted.
Idris observed that by citing the plant in Kebbi State, the coy would not be running helter-skelter sourcing for raw materials elsewhere to be used for battery.
“I want us to widen the discussion so that we know what you want us to do. I know by God’s grace, we can do something together,” he confirmed.
