from OKORO CHINEDU in Lagos, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
LAGOS, (CAJ News) – THE rollout of electric mass transit buses is anticipated to ease congestion in Lagos roads and cut greenhouse gases through cleaner sources of energy.
Oando Clean Energy and the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to attain that.
With over 25 million residents, the Nigerian city is the most populous city in Africa and among the top ten of the world’s fastest-growing megacities.
Over the last decade, the number of vehicles on Lagos roads have quadrupled, yet studies suggest that Lagos could become the world’s most populated city by 2100 with as many as 100 million residents.
As the city grows, the number of vehicles is also projected to soar.
This number poses a significant challenge as transportation has been identified as the key contributing sector at between 23 percent to 30 percent in annual carbon emissions.
Frederic Oladeinde, Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, said the MoU represented the state government’s commitment to cutting greenhouse gases.
Lagos has developed a strategy to cut greenhouse gases by half.
A key component was identifying and developing a more robust mass transit system that would include rail and waterways.
“Using electricity to power mass transit is a step in the right direction. From there we would gradually transit to private cars” Oladeinde said.
Lagos is one of 732 cities across the world to sign up to the United Nations Race to Zero campaign.
The cities are working towards eliminating carbon emissions by 2050.
“Oando Clean Energy was born out of a need to curate the best energy mix to propel Nigeria and indeed Africa, to its full potential,” company chairman, Adewale Tinubu, said.
– CAJ News