# West Africa Manufacturing Node — Update from Lagos + AIP-009 Proposal

**URL:** <https://dao.arrowair.com/t/west-africa-manufacturing-node-update-from-lagos-aip-009-proposal/160>\
**Category:** General\
**Tags:** discussion, concepts\
**Created:** [April 27, 2026, 12:29am UTC](https://dao.arrowair.com/t/west-africa-manufacturing-node-update-from-lagos-aip-009-proposal/160 "2026-04-27T00:29:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Alexander\_Dada](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/user_avatar/dao.arrowair.com/alexander_dada/32/7_2.png) [@Alexander\_Dada](https://dao.arrowair.com/u/Alexander_Dada)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2026, 12:29am UTC](https://dao.arrowair.com/t/west-africa-manufacturing-node-update-from-lagos-aip-009-proposal/160/1 "2026-04-27T00:29:29Z")

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Following up on my [Institutional Embedding](https://dao.arrowair.com/t/institutional-embedding-and-partnerships-a-clear-opportunity-for-arrows-growth/151) thread from February. The situation on the ground has evolved past “should we engage institutions” into something more concrete and, I think, more interesting.

## What happened

I went to the UNILAG AI UniPod — the facility I Photo dumped [here](https://discordapp.com/channels/853833144037277726/1329860134759039048/1497245642148417676). For those who missed it: This is the AI and Robotics hub at the University of Lagos, commissioned on April 7th 2026 by Nigeria’s Vice President. It’s part of a programme called UniPod that they plan on rolling out to 50+ universities across Nigeria.

I met with Prof. Chika Yinka-Banjo, the pioneer Director, toured the facility and hung out with students for a few hours.

Here’s what I found:

**The good:** The facility is genuinely impressive. Multiple Creality (and a couple massive 40x40 unidentifiable) FDM printers, a couple full stack Formlabs stations, full electronics benches (oscilloscopes, signal generators, bench PSUs, soldering stations), HP workstations, climate-controlled space, security. Everything you’d want to see in an equipped, functional, small-scale manufacturing facility. The students are smart and motivated, a few were [designing UAVs](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1329860134759039048/1497246870316253224/20260424_152928.mp4?ex=69ef764f&is=69ee24cf&hm=75c78ca33eb3678b3ba51403365dcc5875116bcca80631d297a46f8eb6f34a0f&) with pixhawks and planning flight plans.

**The reality check:** Prof. Yinka-Banjo was candid with me. Beyond initial construction and outfitting, the UniPod has no official recurring funding channels. Same story for her AI and Robotics Research Lab (AIROL). No operational budget, No standing demand for the equipment, and volunteer/student staffing. The government basically built the thing, filled it with goodies, then F-ed off. Like a pinata salesman. So, the 3D printers and oscilloscopes etc are basically gonna be sitting there waiting for something to do.

This means the model I originally thought about — universities issuing purchase orders for Quiver units — probably wouldn’t work short to mid term for Nigeria, at least not as a primary pathway. They don’t have the procurement budget. Most of the other institutions on those spreadsheets I shared are likely in a similar if not worse position, UNILAG is the country’s top insitution afterall.

## What I’m proposing instead

Rather than selling _to_ the university, what if we manufacture _at_ the university?

The UniPod has the infrastructure. It has the student workforce. What it doesn’t have is operational demand and a programme that justifies its existence to UNDP and TETFund (which run and sponsor the unipod scheme). Pan Robotics could provide that demand by running a Quiver, amongst other things, manufacturing line out of the UniPod facility.

This mirrors what Julius plans to do in Europe. Julius is forming a GmbH and building dev-kits as a bonded manufacturer. I’m proposing the same thing under AIP-009, but the manufacturing happens inside a university facility with student assembly labour — which has some specific advantages:

**Labour costs.** A skilled assembler in Lagos costs $400–800/month fully loaded. At 15–25 hours per unit, that’s around $40–125 assembly labour per Quiver, versus the $500–2,000+ it would cost in the US or Europe. This is a structural advantage, not a one-off saving.

**Facility costs.** The UniPod equipment already exists. Pan Robotics pays the UniPod something like a percentage of each unit sold as a facility fee. The more we build and sell, the more flows back to the UniPod programme. The PETG-CF enclosure parts come off their 3D printers at material cost (~$15) instead of the $50/unit we’re paying externally.

**Market proximity.** West Africa is a greenfield. Agriculture, infrastructure inspection, oil & gas, environmental monitoring, aerial nacho cheese experiments,— real demand, minimal supply. No open-source UAV / eVTOL manufacturer exists anywhere on the continent.

**Contributor pipeline.** Nigerian engineering students building Quivers become Arrow contributors, I’ve already sent a couple to joined the discord already. They’ll encounter conditions we’ve never tested, and that environmental data feeds back into the ecosystem.

## The BOM

Going through Thomas’s cost-per-drone report, and as the supply chain is overwhelmingly Chinese (Hobbywing, Holybro, SIYI, Nanoradar, JLCPCB), it could mean shorter and cheaper shipping to Lagos than to the US. Frame metal components and fasteners could be source and worked locally for cheaper aswell.

### Base Kit — ~$3,560 per unit

| Subsystem | Cost/unit (10-unit batch) |
| --- | --- |
| Airframe (CNC 6061 + CF tubes + landing gear + connectors + shock absorber) | $579 |
| Propulsion (Hobbywing XRotor X6 Plus G2 ×4 + spare props) | $594 |
| Avionics (Holybro Pix32 v6, RPi5, H-RTK F9P, Matek M9N, Nanoradar NRA15, SIYI A8 mini + HM30 + spare antennas, GigaBlox Nano ×2, CubeNode ETH, DB201 Remote ID) | $1,727 |
| PCBs — Main + FC + BC (JLCPCB assembled) | $507 |
| Harness / connectors (XT60, Phoenix terminals, Molex housings, attachment interface cables ×36, AMXL-150 fuse, JST GH pre-made, LED power switch) | $115 |
| Fasteners / hardware (rivets, screws, washers, inserts, nuts, Loctite, hinges, latches) | $160 |
| 3D-printed parts (PETG-CF, ~1.5 kg) | $50 → ~$15 at UniPod |

### Optional Add-Ons — ~$2,795

| Add-on | Cost |
| --- | --- |
| RPLIDAR S2L (obstacle avoidance LiDAR) | $282 |
| Nanoradar MR82 (forward-facing radar) | $291 |
| Tattu 14S 30000mAh battery | $735 |
| SKYRC PC3000H charger | $609 |
| RadioMaster Boxer TX + battery + receiver | $268 |
| Nanuk 976 transport case | $610 |

### Totals

| Configuration | Cost per unit |
| --- | --- |
| Base kit | ~$3,560 |
| Fully loaded (base + all add-ons) | ~$6,355 |
| **Landed Lagos estimate (inc. 10–15% customs)** | **~$4,100–7,300 depending on config** |

Assembled and tested units could sell at say, $8,000–11,000, higher for fully loaded builds with battery, charger, TX, and transport case. That gives margin for assembly labour, facility fees, protocol fees, overhead, and profit.

## The AIP-009 structure

Same framework as the European dev-kit, adapted:

- Pan Robotics operates as the manufacturer entity

- 10% protocol fee on hardware sales settled as $ARROW token purchase, per AIP-009

- 5% on service engagements (training, payload development, support contracts)

- Pilot period fee waiver requested for the first 12 months, per AIP-009 incentive provisions

- Quality standards, build logs, and transaction reporting per Arrow standards

- Happy to discuss the bond structure — same concept as Julius’s, adapted for the context

## The ask

**1. Node designation.** Formal approval as a licensed manufacturer node under AIP-009, covering West Africa.

**2. Pioneer units.** I’d like to request 1–2 Quiver units or completed sub-assemblies be sent to the UniPod. The purpose is threefold:

(a) I want one so we can disassemble, document, and reassemble to validate and train the manufacturing process

(b) The Unipod/AIROL could use them to run experiments, build out payloads, run tests and generally use the system, and

(C) Have units that stay at UniPod as a semi-permanent demo — visible and presentable to every university administrator, government official, and researcher who walks through the door of Nigeria’s most prominent AI facility. That’s market seeding we can’t buy frankly.

## What the DAO gets back

- Protocol fee revenue from a new geographic market

- Environmental telemetry from tropical operating conditions

- Contributor base expansion — students and researchers in Nigeria becoming part of the community

- Proof that AIP-009 can scale beyond Europe and the USA — a new node, different continent, different regulatory environment, same protocol

## What the UniPod gets

- Standing operational demand for equipment that’s currently idle

- Paid student workforce pipeline (Pan Robotics pays, not the university)

- Revenue from a percentage of each unit sold — directly tied to production, not a fixed cost

- Research outputs from production and drone use data (publishable, novel, Africa-first)

- The narrative they need for UNDP: “Our UniPod is manufacturing open-source eVTOL drones”

Happy to answer any questions, share more detail on the facility, or walk through it in on a meeting call.

What do folks think ?

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**Author:** ![thomasg](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/user_avatar/dao.arrowair.com/thomasg/32/8_2.png) [@thomasg](https://dao.arrowair.com/u/thomasg)\
**Post date:** [May 19, 2026, 1:26pm UTC](https://dao.arrowair.com/t/west-africa-manufacturing-node-update-from-lagos-aip-009-proposal/160/2 "2026-05-19T13:26:16Z")

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I think this is a very interesting proposal, Alex.

Having a presence at the UniPod could be interesting for the DAO, especially if engineering students join in to our community and work to contribute to our projects. I’d support sending/loaning a dev-kit for the community to use for attachment development and an example for future manufacturing.

Is the UniPod group actually open to letting a company use the space for commercial manufacturing purposes? That seems like a potential risk to me, but if they’re okay with it then I’m certainly not opposed.

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**Author:** ![Alexander\_Dada](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/user_avatar/dao.arrowair.com/alexander_dada/32/7_2.png) [@Alexander\_Dada](https://dao.arrowair.com/u/Alexander_Dada)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2026, 12:09am UTC](https://dao.arrowair.com/t/west-africa-manufacturing-node-update-from-lagos-aip-009-proposal/160/3 "2026-09-24T00:09:07Z")

</div>

## Update: where things stand with the UniPod node (September 2026)

Back in May, Thomas asked the question that mattered most: _is the UniPod actually open to letting a company use the space for commercial manufacturing?_ Short answer: yes in principle, on conditions, and we are now in the detail. Here’s the full state of play.

### 1. The proposal

In May I sent Prof. Chika Yinka-Banjo (Pioneer Director, UNILAG AI UniPod) a formal Facility Partnership Proposal. The core of it:

- Pan Robotics runs a small-scale manufacturing programme inside the UniPod, Quiver first then [Asimov](https://menlo.ai/asimov-1), the open source humanoid robot by [Menlo Research](https://menlo.ai/)
- Pan Robotics funds components, supply chain, QA, engineering supervision, sales and after-sales
- The UniPod provides facility access, safety sign-off, student introductions, a faculty liaison and institutional cover
- The UniPod earns a share of revenue on every unit produced and sold
- Students are paid on a bounty basis for the work they do on production, support and design
- Pioneer Quivers from Arrow are leased to the UniPod for research, attachment development and demonstration

### 2. The meeting (21 September)

This week I walked through the proposal with Prof. Yinka-Banjo and Tanitolorun Akinyemi, one of the UniPod supervisors. The conversation was about _how_, not _whether_. They wanted to know who is on the ground in Nigeria, exactly what Pan Robotics commits to, and whether real demand exists.

Two days later they sent back a structured list of about 40 questions, covering revenue share, team, partners, customers, students, facility use, insurance, regulation, research rights, term and exit. That is the best signal so far. It is what an institution does when it is preparing to take something to its legal office and university management.

### 3. What the UniPod is asking for

Their questions come with some clear conditions attached:

| Area | Their position | |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pilot scope | Start with a roughly six-month pilot, **Quiver only** , before any work on Asimov | |
| Access | Shared, not exclusive, run on a booking schedule they manage | |
| Money | Revenue share plus some way of covering running costs (power, generator fuel, filament, resin, repairs, staff time), possibly a minimum or fixed fee; plus audit rights over production and sales records | |
| Students | A minimum rate of pay for time worked; students are not responsible for finding buyers; work scheduled around lectures and exams; safety training first | |
| Risk | Insurance with the University named, indemnity, Pan Robotics owning all NCAA (Nigerian FAA) and other approvals, no flight testing on campus without permits and a written safety plan | |
| Process | University legal office drafts the MoU; procurement starts only once the MoU is signed and insurance and regulatory approvals are in place; clear targets per phase with a joint review before moving on | |

I think all of this is reasonable.

### 4. Where I need the DAO’s help

Three of their questions are about Arrow directly, and I can’t answer them credibly without the DAO:

1. **Pioneer units.** They want written confirmation of whether and when Quiver units will be provided to the UniPod, and on what lease terms: who insures, who maintains, and whether units can be recalled.
2. **Recognition.** Is Pan Robotics formally recognised by Arrow as a manufacturing partner ? this goes to the AIP-009 node create and onboarding process we need to work through
3. **Licensing.** How does the open-source licence apply to local improvements, such as the payload modules planned for later phases?

Here is what I’d like to propose, open to amendment:

- **Node designation.** Move the West Africa node from this discussion thread to a formal AIP-009 proposal and vote.
- **Dev-kit loan letter.** Support for possibly loaning dev-kits was suggested back in may. A short letter of intent would unblock the MoU: one dev-kit, loaned to the UniPod with Pan Robotics as custodian; Pan Robotics insures and maintains it; Arrow can recall it on notice, or automatically if the node agreement ends; use limited to training, attachment development and demonstration.
- **Contributions.** By default, every payload module, hardening change and parameter set developed at the node gets published back to the Arrow repos.
- **Fees.** A pilot-period fee waiver as per AIP-009 incentive provisions, then 5% protocol fee on Quiver hardware sales sent to the DAO treasury or perhaps used to purchase $ARROW directly, settled per AIP-009.

### 5. Local demand: e.g Rail Logistics and Goridar

This is the part I’m most excited about. As of the time of writing, 2 Lagos companies have written Quiver hardware partnership briefs addressed to Arrow:

- **Rail Logistics** is building autonomous logistics for hospitals, government facilities and secure campuses, using tether-winch delivery.
- **Goridar** is a multi-modal logistics platform adding aerial food delivery through a network of fixed collection lockers.

Both want Quiver dev-kits in Lagos. Both need real integration work: companion compute upgrades, LTE and fallback comms, hardware security modules, bottom-interface payloads, and tropical hardening etc. And both asked Arrow the same question: _is there manufacturing and support capability in Lagos?_ Neither currently has budget to buy hardware outright.

That is exactly what the node is for. I’d like to propose routing both through the West Africa node as its first clients:

- Pan Robotics assembles and flight-tests their units at the UniPod
- Pan Robotics helps support integration and payload R&D against their briefs
- Pan Robotics maintains the fleets locally
- Any initial units are structured as leases with maintenance bundled, rather than outright sales, since neither has hardware capital

What Arrow gets back:

- Protocol fees on node-built units
- New open attachment modules: a tether-winch delivery module and a fixed-locker release hatch / system
- A documented Lagos hardening spec, locally trained CV models and tested ArduPilot parameter sets
- A drone-to-dock authentication pattern
- Real flight hours, failure modes and maintenance data from operations in a humid and harsh torrential operating environment

This also answers one of the UniPod’s own questions (“do you have confirmed orders or letters of intent?”). If Rail and Goridar convert to LOIs through the node, the pilot has real local deployments from day one, not just a production line waiting for buyers.

If anyone at the DAO is already talking to either team, let’s coordinate so we don’t duplicate effort.

### 6. Revised pilot shape could be (Quiver only, about six months)

| When | What |
| --- | --- |
| Month 0 | MoU drafted by UNILAG legal and signed; insurance and NCAA approvals in place; node designation; dev-kit loan confirmed |
| Months 1-2 | Dev-kit arrives: disassemble, document, rebuild as the training baseline; student team safety training; first procurement |
| Months 2-4 | First node-built Quivers; bench testing at the UniPod; flight testing at a permitted site off campus |
| Months 4-6 | Pilot units into Rail Logistics and Goridar (subject to LOIs); first payload modules published; joint review with the UniPod against agreed targets |

Asimov, wider distribution and other markets only come after that review.

### 7. Status

| Item | Status |
| --- | --- |
| Facility Partnership Proposal to UniPod | Sent May 2026 |
| Review meeting with UniPod leadership | Done, 21 September |
| UniPod questions and conditions | Received; responses in progress |
| MoU | To be drafted by UNILAG legal |
| AIP-009 West Africa node designation | Discussion thread; formal proposal next |
| Dev-kit loan | Supported in principle; written terms needed |
| Rail Logistics / Goridar | Briefs received; LOIs to be pursued via the node |

### 8. What I need, in short

1. Support for moving to a formal AIP-009 node proposal
2. A dev-kit loan letter of intent (I’m happy to draft it for amendment)
3. Confirmation of the contribution and fee terms above

The UniPod is waiting on my answers, so ideally I’d like the Arrow items settled over the next month, so they can go into the MoU pack.

Also I’m working through building out a local team of about 3 to 4 operators on the ground as well as needing to start working through any admin or legal matters around using the Pan Robotics Nigeria Entity as well as NCAA regulations, insurance etc.

---

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**Author:** ![Alexander\_Dada](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/user_avatar/dao.arrowair.com/alexander_dada/32/7_2.png) [@Alexander\_Dada](https://dao.arrowair.com/u/Alexander_Dada)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2026, 1:07am UTC](https://dao.arrowair.com/t/west-africa-manufacturing-node-update-from-lagos-aip-009-proposal/160/4 "2026-09-24T01:07:50Z")

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## Funding ask: six-month Quiver pilot at the UniPod node

Following on from the update above, here is the other half of the picture: what it costs to run the six-month pilot, and what I’d like to ask of the DAO.

### Why ask the DAO

The pilot is deliberately structured so the first Quivers go out as **leases** to local operators (Rail Logistics and Goridar), not outright sales, because neither currently has hardware capital. That’s the right call for getting Quivers flying in Lagos quickly, but it means the pilot likely generates little revenue inside six odd months. The UniPod has also been clear that procurement only starts once the MoU is signed and insurance and regulatory approvals are in place, so setup costs come first.

if approved, the dev-kit pilot units would be supplied directly by Arrow, so this ask covers only what it takes to stand up and run the node around them.

### Pilot budget (6 months, Quiver only)

**A. Node setup**

| Item | Cost (USD) |
| --- | --- |
| Insurance: public, product and employer’s liability, University named (estimate, quotes pending) | 1,500 |
| NCAA registration, operator certification and flight permits (estimate) | 2,500 |
| Entity, legal and MoU review | 1,000 |
| Facility running-cost contribution to the UniPod (under negotiation) | 2,000 |
| Student safety training, teardown, rebuild and integration bounties ($5/hr floor) | 1,500 |
| **Subtotal** | **8,500** |

**B. Operations**

| Item | Cost (USD) |
| --- | --- |
| Local core team: lead engineer, operations manager, director (combined $3,000/month) | 18,000 |
| **Subtotal** | **18,000** |

### The ask

| | USD |
| --- | --- |
| A + B | 26,500 |
| Contingency (10%) | 2,650 |
| **Total pilot budget** | **29,150** |

I’d propose releasing funds in **milestone-gated tranches** to a multisig like an AIP-006 Project :

| Tranche | Released when | Covers |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Node designation passed, MoU signed | Node setup (A) |
| 2 | Monthly, from MoU signing, against progress reports | Operations (B) |

### What the DAO gets back

- **Deployed Quivers.** Arrow-supplied units flying real missions in Lagos, with lease income shared with the DAO on terms we agree in the node proposal.
- **Protocol fees.** 5% on every node-built Quiver sold after the pilot waiver.
- **Open modules.** Tether-winch and locker-release attachments, a Lagos hardening spec, CV models and tested parameter sets, all published to the Arrow repos.
- **Data.** Flight hours, failure modes and maintenance records from real operations in a hot, humid, high-rainfall environment.
- **Contributors.** A trained student team at Nigeria’s flagship AI facility building on Quiver.
- **Proof** that AIP-009 works on a new continent, under a different regulatory regime and with an institutional partner: a possible template for other nodes after like it.

### Accountability

- Monthly activity progress posts in this thread
- Receipts and build logs published
- Joint review with the UniPod at month six, shared here before any next phase

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KBM](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/user_avatar/dao.arrowair.com/kbm/32/26_2.png) [@KBM](https://dao.arrowair.com/u/KBM)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://dao.arrowair.com/t/west-africa-manufacturing-node-update-from-lagos-aip-009-proposal/160/5 "2026-09-24T23:38:18Z")

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🤔 Immediate deployment and long-term operation would be ideal, but I believe we need to be prepared for frequent maintenance and even the loss of the aircraft, so sourcing and verification works for local parts suppliers are necessary…

Also, Quiver need a heavy re-design to its enclosure, cockpit sealing design and temperature control mechanism, just to adapt with new high humidity environment, and this should be put on the schedule as first priority before the plan.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Alexander\_Dada](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex004/user_avatar/dao.arrowair.com/alexander_dada/32/7_2.png) [@Alexander\_Dada](https://dao.arrowair.com/u/Alexander_Dada)\
**Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 3:58pm UTC](https://dao.arrowair.com/t/west-africa-manufacturing-node-update-from-lagos-aip-009-proposal/160/6 "2026-10-23T15:58:25Z")

</div>

**Update from Lagos (23 Oct)**

**UniPod:** The UniPod director has accepted our answers to her ~40 questions, and UNILAG’s legal team has started drafting the MoU. The scope is still a six-month, Quiver-only pilot. Nothing will be bought until the MoU, insurance and approvals are in place.

**Team:** We now have a lead engineer, a business development lead and an operations manager in Lagos.

**Approvals and insurance:** We’ve approached Nigerian law firms about the NCAA, ONSA, NCC and import approvals. We’re mapping the full sequence before paying for any applications. We’re also talking to AXA Mansard about insurance: goods in transit, product and public liability, and cover for flights and students.

**Engineering:**

- We’ll break the Quiver build into sub-modules (powertrain, structure etc.) so students can work on them in parallel and training is simpler.

- A student safety and orientation course is being written, which the UniPod requires before anyone handles hardware.

**@KBM:** Agreed. Hardening for humidity and heat (enclosure sealing, conformal coating, thermal management) and a spares and maintenance plan will go into the pilot schedule as early items. We’re starting with Lagos suppliers for laser-cut aluminium, and we’ll share findings on the field-hardening side as we go.

**What we need from Arrow:** With the MoU now being drafted, we need a short letter confirming the dev-kit loan, covering custody, insurance, maintenance and recall terms. The UniPod has asked to see this before the MoU is signed.