By Bennett Oghifo
An auto company has set up shop to roll-out wholly Nigerian model of cars, assembled by Nigerians.
A statement by officials said the Nord assembly plant is located in Sangotedo in Lagos, on a 2,100 square meters of land, and that it is constructing another plant at Epe, on 3,400 square meters of land, recently acquired.
They said the Epe assembly complex is being prepared to meet the growing automotive market and increasing customer demand, according to Oluwatobi Ajayi, Chairman and Chief Executive of Nord Automobiles Limited.
He said Nord Automobiles Limited evolved based on the need for a remarkable made-in-Nigeria automobile brand, adding that the huge investment targets low and middle income earners, including corporate organisations, and that it would make it easy for hardworking Nigerians to buy and use new vehicles.
Ajayi said models that would rollout of the new assembly plant include the Nord Tank Pick-up, Max Pick-Up, Flit bus, Aso Truck, Lasgi big bus, A3 sedan, A5 SUV, Yarn family/business shuttle, Tripper bus, Bolt bus, Ben SUV, Urban sedan, among others that are being designed.
He said the journey to setting up the Nord automobile assembly plant followed several inspection visits, series of discussions and subsequent approvals from the relevant supervising federal government’s ministries, departments and agencies.
These include the federal ministry of trade and investment, the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), federal ministry of finance, budget and national planning, and the Nigerian Custom Service (NCS).
Nord was incorporated in 2017 as a Nigerian automotive manufacturer/assembler with headquarters in Lagos.
He said Nord brand takes the Nigerian environment into consideration, stating that he nurtured the dream to give Nigerians the best of automobiles in 2016 while he was the managing director of Jetvan Automobiles Limited.
He said all the vehicles would be durable and elegant, and competitively priced. “They have low total cost of ownership compared to the competition. That is why we are confident that the Nord vehicles would soon be household names in Nigeria.”
The company’s operations, he said focuses on delivering quality expertise in the value chain of the entire auto assemblage which includes the design, sourcing, development, assembling, distribution, marketing, provision of sales and after-sales service of their unique Nigerian branded automobiles.
He said Nord Company has foreign partners and that they were collaborating with some of the biggest automotive firms in Europe and Asia, “which offer the company an edge in its pursuit to deliver durable, safe, reliable and affordable vehicles for Nigerians and give buyers of the brand good value for money.”
