The Department of Mechanical Engineering of Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, over the weekend, unveiled a car that was manufactured by students of the Department.
The Head of Department, Dr. Mohammed Dauda, while unveiling the car to journalists, said that the car is environment friendly and was prompted by the Federal Government’s automotive policy.
The new National Automotive Policy was approved by the Federal Executive Council in October 2013, but was only implemented from July 2014.
The policy was adopted after the Government and major automobile importers/manufacturers met and agreed to have a collective 10-year action plan for the growth of the nation’s automobile industry, to be implemented by the National Automotive Council, NAC.
The automotive industry development plan is implemented to transform the nation’s automotive industry and attract investments into the sector.
Dr. Dauda, who doubles as the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, also said that the car would participate in this year’s ‘Shell Eco Marathon Competition’.
“In addition to the Federal Government’s automotive policy, I must say that the reason we started this (manufacturing of the car) came from Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited. They invited ABU to participate in what they call Shell Eco Marathon Competition.
“The car should be one that consumes little fuel but goes long distances. This competition is held in America, Europe and Asia and we are participating in the European one in Netherlands in May this year. All materials used for this car were sourced locally,” Dr. Dauda said.
The HOD/Dean revealed that every material used was sourced locally and that those that weren’t were simply recycled materials still sourced in Zaria.
“Though, there are things that we did not fabricate ourselves, you will be surprised that some of the components like the electrical, we just looked at an old computer system and then adopted some of the components that were useful to us.
“So, this is one example of what we did, which is recycling, otherwise, I will say 100% of the things we used were produced here in Zaria,” he said.
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