Managing Director of Globe Motors, an automobile marketing and manufacturing company in Nigeria, Mr. Victor Oguamalam, has said that the firm’s new vehicle assembly plant in Lekki, Lagos has installed capacity of 6,000 Hyundai and Higer units annually.
Oguamalam who spoke to journalists shortly after a tour of the new assembly plant located along Eleko-Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos said: “the plant for now has installed capacity of 6,000 vehicles annually which can be increased depending on market forces.”
Globe Motors is among the 30 local auto manufacturers in Nigeria accredited by National Automotive Design and Development Council, NADDC, under Nigeria Automotive Industry Development Plan, NAIDP.
The company barely three years ago, announced plans to incorporate a multi-auto assembly plant at the cost of $200 million which many thought was impossible but that has become a reality as brand new Hyundai and Higer brands have started to roll out of the plant.
Oguamalam, explained how the plant became a reality saying “Though we are not producing at installed capacity, we started production in 2017 and the staff strength is approximately 50 including engineers, technicians and administrative officers. For now, the company is assembling Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) parts and plans to upgrade to Complete Knocked Down (CKD) parts”
He noted that the company has qualified staff manning the plant, while Hyundai and Higer experts from Korea and China respectively are always on hand to support local staff.
“Hyundai Corporation engineers, through the Youngsan Group, built the plant and trained our staff for months and we took it up from there.
They came in two batches made up of engineers who installed the equipment and assembly lines and the marketing unit. Even the engineers who trained us were amazed at the competence of our staff and rated technical staff in Nigeria more knowledgeable than in other countries where they tried to set up plants”, he said.
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