By Daniel Essiet
The DUKA’s story is a Lagos-Nigeria story of a huge milestone in the history of transportation system.
DUKA Automotive is a Nigerian company, a sister company of Origin Tech Group. It has many innovative products and services that have been on the forefront of technological innovations over.
This new addition is aimed at delivering an indigenous automotive company with capability for electric vehicles (EV), alternative and fuel efficient vehicles. Its projects and programmes start with mini size and all-people mass transit busses.
From a small assembly tractors and farm equipment factory, the company has grown by leaps and bounds within short time into an automotive giant.
So, it is a story of hope and preparation that fits into the urgent need of the vision of the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to create more intermodal transportation system that is more inclusive in its vision and governance.
An overview of Lagos
Lagos State has a coastline of 180 km long, bounded on the north and east by Ogun State and shares boundaries with the Republic of Benin in the west. Its southern borders are with the Atlantic Ocean while 22 per cent of its 3,577 km2 landscape is dominated by islands, lagoons and creeks. The state is on a coastal plain characterised by predominantly flat terrain, with an average elevation of less than 15m above sea level.
As one of the coldest regions in Nigeria with an average daily high temperature of only 31 degrees celsius, Lagos has over 2,000 millimetres of yearly rainfall with high humidity temperatures, making the weather occasionally pleasant.
The resilience of Lagos is committed to improve the quality of life of Lagos residents, based on the sheer dream of Lagosians towards the actualisation of a stronger, robust and more resilient city with adaptability capacity that could meet the demands of the 21st century economic development and beyond.
The spirit of Lagos is one that promotes positive attitudinal disposition of Lagosians towards embracing cultural values that encourage the socio-economic and political life of every resident in the state. As an economic hub of West Africa with a huge and diverse population of over 22 million, Lagos has vast opportunities and potential that are germane and central to economic development in all ramifications. As a result, its vast growing population provides huge need for goods and services through the transport system, accounting for over 60 per cent of industrial and commercial activities in the country.
An X-ray of the challenges
It is obvious that there has been a spectacular growth in the spatial expansion and development of metropolitan Lagos over the years. However, while the economic potential of the metropolitan Lagos are undeniable, the challenges of infrastructural development, especially road network in the transportation system sector have been largely responsible for the slow pace of maximising and converting those opportunities into wealth creation and prosperity.
As a result, the challenge of providing efficient, affordable and accessible transportation system has remained key to the actualisation of the state’s mega city dream. The estimates of transport demand in Lagos have been considerably declined in the number of available vehicles for public transport over the years. About 95 per cent of public transport comes primarily by road, particularly buses.
Quantum leap: The DUKA’s giant strides
In recognition of the acute need for efficient, affordable and accessible commuter bus transportation system with cutting-edge technology, DUKA Automotive took the giant strides towards economic viability that lies in this sector. Through the dynamic leadership and innovative ideas of DUKA’s professional, young and vibrant engineering team, the company was able to manufacture a series of custom-designed Origin X30 buses (first and last mile buses), engineered to deliver optimum user experience, ply inner roads and take commuters to their first and last destination in and around Lagos metropolis.
The critical challenge of road transportation
Lagos has a major challenge of moving its huge number of people around in small areas. So, the need to do it in a smart way has been of paramount importance to the government, being piloted by Sanwo-Olu. The critical challenge of developing infrastructure at a fast pace in order to meet up with the purchasing power of the people, and to move at the pace of development, followed by demand for commercial activities, particularly transportation, has been the driven force that propelled DUKA’s technological innovative strides.
The situation before now is that Lagos needs to move say five to eight million people in and around the city per day. But the carrying capacity of the new vehicles is just 100,000 people. Consequently, one may not see the impact of what government has done. Therefore, there is a need for major push, which means that vehicles have to come at the right price, in right quantity and be able to move the minimum number of people to make the right impact.
Moreover, Lagos State Ministry of Transpiration had revealed that over 1.6 million vehicles ply Lagos roads daily in which 226 cars ply the roads per km compared to the National average of 16 cars per km. Of the 1.6 million vehicle, 75,000 commercial buses popularly known as ‘Danfo’ cater for about 10,000 public-passenger trips per day while an average of 12,000 public transport trips are generated daily. This is according to the Ministry. Therefore, the need to improve travel time for business and movement of people and goods for safety and social inclusion and quality of life cannot be emphasised.
Besides, considering the state’s fast-growing population coupled with cosmopolitan nature of the city, Lagos suffers from large number of unemployment, especially the youth and women. Reports have revealed that the youth in Lagos constitutes about 50% of the population, which amounts to over 10 million people. Our findings have shown that a considerable per cent of these young people are employable but lack the needed platforms where they can showcase and maximise their entrepreneurial potentials. Our company identified those challenges and the unique opportunities that characterise youth employment; we seized the opportunities and converted them into economic growth and wealth creation. That is the entrepreneurial spirit that forms our team. You can call them Nigerians “Elon Musks” if you like. This is BUKA Automotive’s strides.
It is a story of resilience
COVID-19 was at its peak when we converted our tractor assembly plant into a vehicle assembly plant. It is really a story of gritty determination, because we had to work under strict compliance with COVID-19 protocols and guidelines. At that point, we had the opportunity of working with some experts from India but they could not come. We also have our technical partners from Germany and China but they, too, could not make it down to Lagos due to the pandemic. Nonetheless, our team got together, brainstormed and assembled fully-built vehicles from the complete knock down into complete vehicles in Nigeria. This was done just within six months from the assembly line to production of the first set of 1000 vehicles with 1.5 litre engine, latest technology, low-carbon emission, low fuel-consumption and laudable masterpieces of logistics.
Story of consistency, fortitude and Single-mindedness
In the past 10 years, Origin Group Tech saw the need and the challenges that were described above. The company has been working on the development of a truly Nigerian vehicle and it has worked with successful administrations to find enabling ways of introducing a more inclusive mass transport system. The first and last-mile initiative is basically an opportunity and a challenge. Of course, it was met with preparation, given a renewed impetus by an all-inclusive, able and a ready government led by Sanwo-Olu.
We were able to combine our dynamism with strength and commitment. The vision of our company is basically to meet the need of the people within our environment. Our target as a Group is to reach five million people in the next five years, delivering consistent and impactful brand products and services on a daily basis all across the country through our various subsidiaries.
DUKA’s initiative is to pursue green vehicles, affordable and that fit into the users’ culture and adaptability of Nigeria. The vehicles have to be green in terms of technology and design, considering the fact Lagos is the highest emitter of carbon emission in Nigeria. Since emission reduction is sensitive to vehicle survivability rate, we deemed it important that we contribute to Lagos state’s dream of achieving 50 per cent emission reduction by 2032. All these factors we put into consideration and we were able to harness the resourcefulness of young and dynamic Nigerian engineers who brought theirs skills to bear.
DUKA’s assembly plant: First of Its kind
Constructing a manufacturing plant or expanding a facility can be thrilling and at the same time highly demanding project, especially the design and concept phase. It is interesting and amazing that DUKA’S assembly plant is the only plant in Nigeria that did not start with any foreign support. It is the only plant in Nigeria that did not have expatriate staff member from the start of its operation to the fabrication of the assembly plant itself, and the assembly of its first set of vehicles. It is a true story of the dynamism and strength of the youth. It is a major quality that has been over the years imbedded in the DNA of Origin Tech Group. It is a continuous learning, continuous improvement and can-do spirit. It is just the spirit of Lagos and Nigeria that made this happened.
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