The media is a vital tool in shaping and influencing people’s perception and interpretation of Africa and Africans and people of African ancestry. We all can agree that Western media portray Africa as a poverty-stricken, war-ravaged, and disease-ridden continent, which also reinforces other negative stereotypes. Africa’s fast-growing youthful population is changing the western narrative and perception of Africa. Today, millions of Africans are contributing to the continent’s technology industry.
A 27-year-old Nigerian fabrication engineer and Chief Executive Officer of Bennie Technologies LTD., Jerry Issac Mallo made history by building the first Nigerian-made fibre sports car in Nigeria and West Africa. Jerry Issac Mallo was born in Plateau state in 1994. He started his elementary education at King’s School, Gana Ropp, in Plateau State. He later did his post-elementary education when he went to Boys Secondary School, Gindiri, Plateau State. He proceeded to the University of Hertfordshire, UK via a scholarship. He was an art student in secondary school. He decided to switch to sciences when he wanted to write the senior secondary school certificate examination. He eventually studied Engineering at the university.
At the age of five, Jerry Mallo already knew what he wanted – to work in the automotive industry. Growing up in a small village in Nigeria, Jerry Mallo started making toy cars with trash. He told Tayo Aina, a Nigerian YouTuber in an interview “I always wanted my toy cars to be the best among my peer group. I always dedicated my time to making them. At some point, I used old slippers to make the tyres. Sometimes I even use my new slippers to make it look good.”
In 2012, at age 18, whilst he was in secondary school, he built his first ‘life-size’ car made out of trash. He cut short his studies in the UK and returned to Nigeria to start manufacturing cars. Africa, according to him, has all the resources and raw materials used in manufacturing vehicles, but sadly they are seldom made in Africa. Hence, another reason why he decided to venture into the manufacturing of cars – is to fill that void. In 2019, Chief Executive Officer, Bennie Technologies Limited, Jerry Isaac Mallo, made national headlines in November when he unveiled Nigeria’s first luxury sports car – the Bennie Purrie. Designed with carbon fibre to give it a more robust safety quality, the Bennie Purrie is not the first notable product this entrepreneur and automotive engineer has made. Mallo had long made a brand out of the Jos-based Bennie as a ‘machine design, fabrication, and manufacturing company that simplifies local agricultural processes via mechanization and automation.’ He also made headlines last year by unveiling Nigeria’s first locally made ventilator to support the Nigerian government in the fight against Covid-19.
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