Lanre Shittu Motors backs varsities’ EV Bus Design contest
Foremost Auto Company, Lanre Shittu Motors (LSM), has thrown its weight behind the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC)’s competition of building 8-Seater Electric Campus Shuttle Buses for 12 Nigerian universities cutting across all the geo-political zones of the country. The company is a major supporter of the competition which kicked off last week […]
Lanre Shittu Motors
Foremost Auto Company, Lanre Shittu Motors (LSM), has thrown its weight behind the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC)’s competition of building 8-Seater Electric Campus Shuttle Buses for 12 Nigerian universities cutting across all the geo-political zones of the country.
The company is a major supporter of the competition which kicked off last week with the commissioning of eight units of EV bus shuttle at the University of Lagos, with representatives from different schools in attendance.
The competition is expected to last for six months.
Aside from supporting the event, a technical representative of LSM is also part of the jury which is made of auto industry players, academia and the NADDC.
The Managing Director of LSM, Mr Taiwo Shittu, said, “We as a company like to support and encourage young talents who have interest in the automotive industry.
“It is also our own way of supporting the NADDC initiative of encouraging young brains in the country
“Encouraging and training the youths is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility. Every year, we take youths into our facility and train them. Even while in training, we give them stipends.”
The MD added, “We do not stop at training and giving stipends; we also provide basic workshop tools to those we train, and employ some of them.”
The participating universities in the competition are Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Uthman Danfodio University, Sokoto; Modibbo Adama University, Yola; Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; University of Abuja; and University of Ilorin, Kwara State.
Others are University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Federal University of Technology, Owerri; University of Benin; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife; University of Lagos; and University of Port Harcourt.
The Director General of the NADDC, Mr Joseph Osanipin, stated that the council would give its full support to the competition, tasking the contenders, made up of students and supported by lecturers from the concerned schools, to come up with practical and workable solutions suitable for the Nigerian environment.
“Today, I challenge the Nigerian university community to dream big; I challenge you to do even better than our expectations. Let us have a vehicle of our dream. We are going to work with universities, polytechnics and technical schools,” the DG said.
One of the participants, Senior Vice President, Technical of Oando Clean Energy, Mr Adeyemi Adebajo, stated that Oando is concerned about the environment and reasoned that environment, economy and society are key in sustainable transportation.