The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said Dangote Sinotruk West Africa Ltd (DSWAL) is committed to raising the level of its local content to 60 per cent when Ajaokuta Steel Company comes on stream.
Dangote spoke at the commissioning of DSWAL’s completely knocked down (CKD) plant in Ikeja, Lagos.
While receiving the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; the Deputy Senate President, Jibril Barau and Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Dangote underscored the importance of steel to the automotive industry and the economy.
Dangote said: “The investment in the truck assembly plant is part of our backward integration to add value and reduce imports. I am glad recently, Your Excellency, when you talked about Ajaokuta Steel in your speech and I believe the completion of the Ajaokuta Steel project will give a fillip to our attempt to increase local content in the assembly in our lines.
“We have welding and painting shops to fabricate and paint trucks and trailers of different types to enhance local content of CKD operations of commercial vehicles manufacturing in Nigeria.
“In the next 12 months, we will begin to fabricate different types of trailers and tippers in our plant to increase value addition of up to 40 to 60 per cent to achieve domestic self-sufficiency and serve the West Africa regional market.”
Dangote Sinotruck, according to him, is an assembler and producer of four lines of commercial vehicles – heavy-duty trucks, medium trucks, light trucks and other semi-trailers.
“As you are aware, Dangote also owns majority shares of Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria in Kaduna where we assemble small vehicles. We (DSWAL) are a joint venture company with a total investment of $100 million formed for the truck assembly, which is owned 60 per cent by Dangote Industries, 30 per cent by Sinotruck China and five per cent by Andas.
“We aim to meet the expected current demand of this segment of automobiles required for logistics, consumption, food, and beverages industry in Nigeria as the government focuses on economic development across the country,” he said.
He added: “I am sure we are going to participate in the new production of compressed natural gas (CNG), which this government is driving.
“But we are committed to buying 10,000 of the CNG trucks of which 1,500 are arriving June/July. Already, about 500 are at the port. So, this company has the installed capacity to assemble and produce 10,000 trucks annually and create about 3,000 jobs.”
Akpabio lauded Dangote Group’s investments in Lagos and other parts of the country. Akpabio commended the entrepreneur for his investments that have employed thousands of Nigerians.
