UNIZIK students make mini bus from local materials

Seven final-year engineering students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, designed and constructed a mini bus from scratch with locally sourced materials made specially to suit Nigeria’s topography and climatic condition.

“The bus was constructed from start to finish at the University’s workshop, using all necessary design software and Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools. We constructed the chassis, down to every single part of the mini bus,” said Callistus Ezeigwe, one of the seven.

The group, known as the Autozik Group, was made up of six males and a female including Callistus Ezeigwe, Victor Obinani, Ifeanyi Ezeanolue, Ogbu Ikenna, Fidelis Ominigbo, Nnamdi Nwobodo and Chinaza Okoro, was supervised by the then Head of Mechanical Engineering Department, Dr. C.H. Achebe.

The mini bus which took about five months to complete, has a beautiful finishing so that people find it difficult to believe it was made in Nigeria.

Ezeigwe said the aim was to construct a mini bus using locally sourced materials, which is more durable and can better stand the test of time, compared to other brands out there.

“We named it Autobully,” said Obinani Victor, explaining that the brand name, coined from the normal bullion van, fits the shape of the mini bus.

Also in the same institution, five final-year engineering students produced a Formula 1 car (Racing car).

Well meaning Nigerians have appealed to the government to invest in these youths and channel resources to the Automobile sector as they seek to diversify the economy. They also appealed to the public to buy made in Nigeria products to grow the Naira.