Nigerian Student Launch its First Solar Car

An Electronic and electrical engineering student at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Segun Oyeyiola has become the first African to build a car operating on solar power.

Segun spoke about how he came up with the idea and eventually embodied it. "In the course of my research, I found out that ourregular cars contribute immensely to climate change… If we could manufacture cars that do not use fuel or reduce the number of cars that use fuel; our world will be a better place for us to live in."

"Asides the lack of electricity, getting the right materials and text books to study as well as other
needed tools was difficult. But the most prominent of them was the lack of funds. I started using my personal funds which I obtained by helping people to do their projects and a little fund my parents also contributed towards the project."

"Everyone likes it and they are willing to start driving it around town because of its low cost of
maintenance. I developed a simple software that can be installed on our laptops and smart phones to tell us the battery level, the weather condition, the distance we can cover during different weather conditions and GPS location of the car."


"I would rather they fund me to put together a team to help me perfect them and make them
commercial."