PAN To Launch Made-in-Nigeria Vehicles In July

PAN Nigeria Limited has said that it would commence its first industrial assembly of Peugeot 301 in the country in its factory in Kaduna and also commission a proposed automotive cluster park site on July 1, 2014.

The auto giant made this disclosure yesterday at the 2nd Abuja International Automobile Exhibition (AIAE) which was flagged off by the minister of industry, trade and investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga.

The PAN Nigeria managing director, Ibrahim Boyi, who was represented on the occasion by the company’s zonal sales manager, Abuja, Olayinka Seriki, said the move was part of efforts at supporting the new automotive policy of the federal government.

Boyi noted that the effort was also to meet the huge demand for locally-manufactured vehicles. While adding that the full implementation of the new automotive policy would revolutionise the growth and development of the nation’s industrial sector, he noted that the auto giant was poised to reclaim its number one spot in the country’s auto sector.

Also speaking, the director-general, National Automotive Council (NAC), Aminu Jalal, while commending the organisers of the exhibition, MFV Nigeria, for its meaningful contribution towards driving automobile investments in Nigeria, said, “the exhibition is not only apt, but also in line with government’s synergy of achieving sustainable auto sector development and growth using private sector participation as the focus around which the National Industrial Development Plan (NIDP) can be realised.”

Jalal, who disclosed that at the moment the country boasts of seven vehicle plants actively involved in automobile production, and about 50 components and parts makers, said the approval of the new auto policy was a demonstration of the desire of the federal government to ensure that more vehicles and components were produced locally.

He further noted that “Nigeria has the potential of becoming a motor vehicle manufacturing centre for the entire West African and Central African sub-region.”

He maintained that the country’s population of over 160 million people and a growing middle class were proofs of a huge market for vehicle products not only in the country but across the West Africa sub-region.

Leadership.

PAN To Launch Made-in-Nigeria Vehicles In July