…To churn out 40,000 vehicles yearly
Roxettes Motors, a motor assembly plant, is set to commence assembling vehicles in Abia State before the end of October 2024.
The construction of its assembly plant located at Obu-Aku City in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State is nearing completion and the equipment needed to start the 40,000 units of automobiles per annum are expected to arrive Abia State before the end of August 2024.
Kaycee Orji, chief executive officer, Roxettes Motors, disclosed the development during a meeting with Alex Otti, governor of Abia State. The Abia-born CEO said that what was a dream a year ago had now become a reality owing to the encouragement from the governor by the provision of an enabling environment.
“I told you of my plans to set up an assembly plant and you asked me to bring it to Abia. I am very grateful to Your Excellency for the very peaceful business atmosphere you have created in Abia. Everything you promised us, you have fulfilled.
“Your Excellency promised us land where we would build the assembly plant and in less than a month, you gave us an offer letter and Certificate of Occupancy. I have to inform you now that construction is seriously ongoing at Obu-Aku City. We call it Eco-Drive Green Tech Metropolis because we have in mind to do a whole lot of things within that space. One of the things we are doing already is the construction of the assembly plant,” he said.
The assembly plant, according to Orji, will see the rolling out of about 40,000 units of automobiles per annum and 70% of the production would be mainly innovative products like electric vehicles and CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) driven vehicles.
“The world is migrating to sustainable energy and we do not want to sit back and watch the world move and Nigeria and Abia State are not doing anything. We considered Abia as the most favourable environment to start because of the current leadership. So, we are going to start assembling electric vehicles in that space, this year Your Excellency.
“Secondly, we are going to have another production line there which is a CNG conversion plant. What it means is that we are going to have the capability to convert any Vehicle to CNG. We are going to have the CNG kits installed there and then the CNG cylinders installed so that people can run on cheaper and cleaner energy,” he said further.
He described Obu-aku City as a well planned and strategic place to do business with the natural gas lines there as an added advantage for smart companies to do their businesses.
Read also: R.T. Briscoe Motors moves to set up CNG conversion centres
“We have produced our CNG generators in China and they will be leaving China next month so that we don’t bother or stress the already crowded demands on the national grid since we already have gas lines that pass through that location,” he noted.
Orji said that they were going to employ over one thousand Abians by the time they kick start their operations, adding that he came with a prototype of their vehicle model already assembled abroad for the governor to see and feel the quality of their products.
Governor Otti welcomed Orji and noted that he was delighted to hear the cheering news that the car assembly plant would soon start operation and expressed hope that they would move from assembling to full production.
“We love that the vehicles are assembled here, but we will be happier if we begin to manufacture them here. We understand how manufacturing happens. The way car manufacturing happens is that you will still have to buy some parts from somebody else. If you want to sit down and manufacture everything from beginning to end, then you cannot do it.
“But the important thing is that you couple all the things together in a particular location. You have an emblem that says this vehicle is manufactured in Nigeria. For me, that is the joy. The other thing that is also important is local content. So, when you take a complete vehicle and you look at the component parts, where are they from? So, doing what we call backward integration is very necessary and you don’t need to produce all those parts. Somebody can produce brakes somewhere and someone else can produce rubber somewhere.
“We want to get to a level where you can replicate some of those things in Aba. Our people are very creative. Just show them what to do. They may not finish it in the way they can finish it in China but a journey of a thousand miles starts with one,” Otti noted.
He went on to announce that he had instructed the Commissioner for Works to begin the process of building a dual-carriage way from the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway into Obu-aku City to create a better and easy access to the place.
“I know we worked out the equity of the state on evaluation of land, which I believe is less than two percent (2%). So, in due course, we will want to look at it and see if we can increase our equity to use it to support you”, said Otti.
As a firm believer in local production, the governor announced to Orji that the state is placing orders for some of the vehicles.
He encouraged other people that have the same big dreams to come to Abia State, assuring that the state will support them to realise their dreams.
Orji was accompanied by Ofia Mbaka, a popular Nollywood actor, who is one of the ambassadors of Roxettes Motors.
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