PAN to assemble 3,500 units of vehicle in H1 2019

Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN), a technical partner with Peugeot Citroen, will assemble 3,500 units in the first year and ramp up to 10,000 units later on at a plant that will be situated in Kaduna first quarter of 2019.

This would be a joint venture with President, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote and five Nigerian state governors will see the production and assembling of cars in Nigeria by French carmaker, PSA Peugeot Citroen in the first quarter of 2019.

“The first vehicle should come out by the first quarter of next year.

We are hoping that the factory will be completed by December.

The land has been identified … we have advertised for a contractor that will build the factory,” Jimi Lawal, the adviser to the governor of Kaduna, told Reuters in an interview.

First, Peugeot will build its 301 sedans in small volumes from semi-assembled kits of parts shipped in from its plant in Vigo, Spain.

Then the production of additional models such as the 308 compact and 508 may follow, the French carmaker said.

Dangote will hold a majority stake in the joint venture, which is with five northern Nigerian states, Jigawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Kano.

Peugeot Citroen will own a 10 percent stake in the local joint venture company and operate the plant, Lawal said.

The northern states would provide offtake for cars built at the Kaduna plant.

Dangote, in alliance with two states and the Bank of Industry, made a bid to acquire a majority stake in PAN in the second quarter of 2017 after the state-bad bank AMCON sought to sell some of the assets it bought in the wake of the banking crisis in 2009.

Nigeria’s automobile market which dates back to the 50’s has great potential to thrive as it did before the recession of the 80’s, high production cost, the inconsistency and incompetence of the government and the market domination with imported used cars negatively affected it. Limited bank financing and the absence of an industrial policy has also stunted growth in the industry.