As part of its plans to expand its business space and boost exportation, an automobile Firm, Lanre Shittu Motors (LSM) has said it was constructing a large vehicle assembly plant in Sagamu, Ogun State.
According to the Group Executive Director of the firm, Mr Taiwo Shittu, the plant would be completed by the end of the year and its operation would boost the exportation of vehicles abroad.
The CEO of the indigenous auto assembler, during an interview in Lagos State, also disclosed plans to build vehicles that will be known as Lanre Shittu.
Already, Shittu said the firm has started assembling a mid-size pickup truck christened Huanghai LSM, in partnership with a Chinese automobile manufacturer, Dandong Huanghai Automobile Co Ltd with a view to building Nigerian auto industry.
Shittu, while explaining the reason behind the collaboration of LSM with the Chinese firm, said it was to share technology and other things that would aid exportation to other African countries and beyond.
He said his firm has a plan to own a vehicle called LSM (Lanre Shittu Motors), and described Huanghai as a very good brand which is the second-biggest pickup company in China.
He said LSM’s partnership with Huanghai would afford them the opportunity to share technology among others before fully facing the indigenous firm.
LSM chief executive noted that the focus of the firm is to build the Nigerian automobile industry to the level of exporting its products to other African countries and beyond, adding that LSM, which will be 42 as a vehicle manufacturer this year would soon have its brand intact.
According to him, the company’s assembly plant had started injecting local content into products coming from the auto assembler, saying that about 30 percent of components of vehicles assembled from Lanre Shittu Motors are currently sourced locally.
For him, all the lubricants, the grease, liquid-based materials used in vehicles are assembled and sourced locally, adding that materials for the box body, which is the buckets on the trucks, welders design are being fabricated together in about 30 per cent local content in some cases.
Calling on the Federal Government to urgently come up with policies that would encourage automobile component manufacturers to come and build factories in Nigeria, Shittu likened Nigeria to a big market for manufacturers and investors.
For their investments to birth positive fruits, he sought the need for the Federal Government to enact policy that would attract investors.
He said if the government places 100 per cent duty on imported versions of the products that are sourced locally, no Nigerian manufacturer of vehicles would be buying imported parts when the locally-made are cheaper and of the same quality.
Investors King gathered that LSM has the potential to manufacture 2500 vehicles annually and it became a household name with the MAC and JAC heavy-duty trucks in October 2018.
It is a certified KIA, NISSAN, and Jinbei Bus dealer before its full venture into vehicles manufacturing.
