Elizade begins JAC vehicles assembly in Nigeria
The Nigerian middle class can begin to look forward to affordable vehicles following the commencement of assembly operations for the JAC model of vehicles in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital under Elizade Auto Land.
Located at Ikotun, the new assembly facility occupying 40,000 square meters of land according to Demola Ade Ojo, Managing Director, Elizade Motors has the capacity to assemble 15,000 units of various models of JAC vehicles in one shift, and can increase the volume according to the dictates of the market.
Some of the models that will be rolled out of the assembly line under the Semi Knocked Down (SKD) phase are the J4, J5, S3 and S5 passenger cars, the SUVs, single and double cabin Pick-Up vehicles, including the 1.5, 2.0,2.5, 3.0,3.5,4.0 and 5 tons utility delivery carriage trucks.
While the managing director hinted that the amount of resources invested in terms of equipment and other infrastructures cannot be estimated, the JAC plant will begin the pilot roll phase with a modest number of qualified workforce which will be increased in near future.
Reacting on the timing of kick-starting operations, Ademola Ade-Ojo said that the plant would have commenced operations earlier than now but for their inability to source foreign exchange for production.
According to him, “It is difficult getting foreign exchange . We are supposed to have opened the plant since last year but it has been idle most of the time. The federal government should give enough Foreign Exchange to local assemblers to bring in kits because it is critical to our business. We opened LCs of JAC in May 2016 only to get the confirmation in November 2016’’.
He said, the auto assembly plant may not venture into the assemblage of Complete Knock Down (CKD) until government addresses key challenges of local content in automobile production which should be at least 30 per cent.
According to him, the organisation commenced operation despite the economic shortfall in order to deliver affordable products that would assuage plights of Nigerians and support government’s efforts in the sector.
Continuing he said: “We are the largest automotive group in the country in terms of units. It will be irresponsible of us to sit down and fold our arms. We need to do everything to introduce cheaper products to the market. What we are doing today is the demonstration to ensure that we support the government and have something that the customer can buy.”
He stated that moving the production to CKD depends on how government ensures that the other factors key into ensuring that CKD strives. CKD cannot strive unless you have a minimum of about 30 per cent locally sourced material.
‘’If you can’t source 30 per cent local content, there is no point in doing CKD. It depends on how government structures the auto market and the industry.” He stated.