Dangote opens 3,000 jobs truck assembly plant in Lagos
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The Dangote Group is to establish a truck
assembly plant in Lagos, saving the country foreign exchange and creating 3,000
jobs in the process. Specifically, the plant will be churning out heavy duty
trucks for which conglomerate spends huge amount to import for products
distribution in Nigeria and other African countries where it operates. Dangote
is partnering a leading Chinese Company, National Heavy Duty Truck Group
Company Limited (SINOTRUCK) to produce several thousand of trucks used mainly
for haulage business from its newly promoted assembly plant at Ikeja, Lagos.
The decision to go into the truck assembly plant project was informed by the
need to conserve forex in view of the current economic recession that is facing
the country. The deal worth $100 million to create an assembly plant that will
produce 10,000 trucks per year was signed in May 2014 in China, making it the
eighth of Shandong, China (SINOTRUCK), to be built abroad. According to the
deal agreement, the plant is 60% owned by Dangote Group, trading under Dangote
Industries Limited, leaving SINOTRUCK with the balance. Consequently, Dangote
Agro Sacks Limited, which occupied the Oba-Akran Ogba premises of the former
Nigerian Textile Mills, until recently, has been relocated closer to the
group’s major operational hubs, particularly the cement plants in Obajana, Kogi
State and Ibeshe, Ogun State. The assembly plant is expected to generate
employment for an estimated 3,000 workers, when fully operational. Nigeria
remains one of the most important markets for SINOTRUCK, with Dangote Group
operating the largest truck fleet in Africa with over 10, 000 trucks for the
distribution of cement, sugar, flour and pasta, and other of its products from
its plants across the continent. Chief Corporate Communication Officer of
Dangote Group, Mr. Anthony Chiejina, confirmed the project has taken off and
that when fully operational, the nation would be spared the huge amount of
forex spent in the importation of the heavy duty vehicles. According to him,
there will be room for the expansion of the project in years to come, adding
that as it meets the national truck demand, it would explore exportation to
neighbouring countries to generate foreign exchange for the nation. Chiejina
said the Group President, Aliko Dangote, had always believed that the
current economic challenges when approached positively will make Nigeria
stronger at the end of the day, pointing out that “Alhaji Aliko still believes
that Nigeria is one of the best places in the world to do business.” The automobile
assembly plant is also coming ahead of another landmark project, a $17 billion,
650,000 barrels per day capacity Dangote Refinery, petrochemical and fertilizer
plants located in Lagos expected, to begin operations in the next two years and
creating over 300,000 direct and indirect jobs by first quarter of 2019, which
would require a lot of long trucks for product distribution. It would be
recalled that in preparation for the completion of the refinery project, some
100 trainee engineers have been sent on training abroad to handle sensitive
aspects of the multi-billion Dollar investment in petroleum products and
petrochemical plant. In 2014, according to reports, Dangote Group imported
12,000 trucks from China. That year alone, and despite shrinking domestic and
overseas demand, Sinotruck still secured orders for 176,000 vehicles, up by
9.94% from the previous year.
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