Crisis And Opportunity At The Feet Of Aliko Dangote And Innocent Chukwuma For Electric Trucks: What Can Be Done
The Oasis Reporters
March 14, 2026
By Greg Abolo
In a classic case of the lack and opportunity trapdoor story, a narrator wrote that “600 million people lack electricity in Africa and that “400 million go to bed hungry nightly”.
However, those statistics may not be said to be exactly accurate without empirical data. But it still tells a story that needs attention.
It is the trap and the door story or better put, the trapdoor.
Providing food and electricity is easily the door to wealth. So why should the world wait, especially when it has the opportunity now for people to eat and at the same time provide the electricity that is needed.
Nigeria for instance has ingenious citizens who can stand between the gap of the problem and its solution.
Its an opportunity. 600 million people without electricity, is not a crisis. It’s a market.
400 million hungry every night, that’s not a statistic. That’s a supply chain waiting to be built. Africa’s billionaires added $20 billion this year largely from resources, telecoms and finance. The next $20 billion is in food systems, distributed energy and last-mile logistics. The continent isn’t poor. It’s inefficiently served. VisionflowM says it has documented the problems precisely because the problems are the map. You can’t build the solution without first seeing the full picture of what’s broken. How can this vision flow? It’s in every post that names the gap because naming the gap is the first step to closing it.
With the unfortunate war in the Middle East and Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point that 20% of the world’s oil and gas passes, suddenly, inflation has exacerbated and most economies are facing grave problems.
How can the problem be side stepped and turned into a solution?
Hussein Dia of Swinburne University of Technology writes that:
“For years, long-range electric trucks seemed impossible. But much has changed in a short time. Rapid improvements to batteries and chargers mean battery electric trucks are already viable for urban and short-range trucks. In December, battery-electric and hybrid trucks outsold conventional trucks in China for the first time”.
He mentioned Australia as being reliant heavily on road freight. Trucks move more than 250 billion tonne-kilometres of goods each year. Most run on diesel, which has to be imported.
That’s now become a problem. The war on Iran has triggered spiking oil prices and warnings of fuel shortages. Trucking goods will get more expensive, pushing up the cost of food, consumer products and construction materials.
For trucking fleet managers, this is both crisis and opportunity. Some will wonder whether it’s time to go from trialling electric trucks to deployment. Cheaper running costs are one drawcard for going electric – but there are others. As a manager involved in a trial told the ABC:
I was sceptical at the start. I still love proper diesel trucks. But this thing was light years ahead. It was significantly faster uphill, kept up with traffic easily, and the torque delivery was immediate.
Back home in Nigeria, a nation that produces crude oil and exports it while at the same time importing refined petroleum products from abroad for several decades, Dangote saw a trap and a door. He decided to build a large petroleum refinery. Nigeria is grateful to him today for solving a problem. Since much of the crude cannot go out because of the problems associated with the Middle East crisis, he can as well get his crude internally, refine it internally and offer much needed break.
But in wheeling the refined products out, he also foresaw a human problem ahead. He prepared early by partnering with Sino Trucks company in China to own 60% equity in a new Dangote-Sino Trucks production company which started by producing over 1000 trucks first, fitted with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) cylinders.
Therefore the new Dangote-Sino Trucks solve an environmental pollution problem and are cheaper to drive, bringing the cost of fuelling way cheaper per Kilometer, compared to diesel powered trucks.
He won over the cheap blackmail from Unionists who would prefer managerial problems in order to feather their entrenched nests.
But truck drivers would prefer new CNG buses that have hardly any immediate breakdowns and repairs on the highways, costing several days in transportation delays.
Problem solved.
But there’s another problem that not only Dangote can solve for Nigerians and Africa, Innocent Chukwuma, CEO of Innoson Motors can join him in solving.
Both gentlemen and the CEO of Nord Motors can equally join.
They can start by producing electric trucks, buses and cars in larger quantities as a way of changing the transportation landscape where trips are made with mostly petrol engines.
Many of those vehicles today are resting in garages because the owners can no longer afford to put them on the road due to high costs of petrol and diesel. Most Nigerians who are known for human interactions are no longer able to travel as much as they used to before.
Take for instance a trip from Lagos to Warri in Delta state, a distance of 418km that was about 4000-5000 naira in the past, now gulping between 25,000-30,000 naira all because of rising fuel costs.
Eliminate the cost of fuelling to cheaper battery powered vehicles, costs would come down.
Many entrepreneurs would definitely build battery recharge stations along the way. That’s business expansion and growth.
It may not be long before owners of abandoned petrol cars would get relief when engineers begin to set up vehicle conversion garages from petrol or diesel power automobiles to battery powered ones. The nation then wins all round.
Can the entrepreneurs help Nigeria further?
Additional reporting from Hussein Dia of Swinburne University of Technology via theconversation.com
