Unizik Students create minibus from locally made materials

 

Seven final-year engineering students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State have 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.

“We made the mini bus using mere hand tools. This means we did all of the constructions and folding, with our hands, since the university could not provide us with ground equipment, as used in most automobile companies,” said Ezeugwu.

  Seven students build made-for-Nigeria bus

Achebe supervised a group last year who constructed another “made in Nigeria” mini bus in December last year.

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.