The Director General of National Automotive Design and Development Council(NADDC), Mr. Joseph Osanipin, has expressed satisfaction with the state of Lanre Shittu auto assembly plant and the volume of work being carried out there.
He specifically commended the company for focusing on the assembling of commercial vehicles, especially trucks and pickups as well as the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-powered vehicles.
The DG spoke after inspecting the LSM auto assembly plant in Lagos and was taken through the process of putting the JAC truck components together as well as conversion of LSM pickups to run on CNG.
Osanipin said, “I’m very impressed with what I saw here. Lanre Shittu Motors has picked where its strength is – the pickups and trucks.
“I’m also impressed about their human capital development. We have seen the training facility and capacity. We also saw the spare parts. It means they are ready to support their vehicles with sufficient parts when the need arises.
“I have seen capacity and ability to meet the demand of the market. What we have seen here, I’m not too surprised because Lanre Shittu Motors has been there over the years.”
About 95 per cent of the workers engaged at both truck and pickup sections of the plant are Nigerians.
The DG spoke on the readiness of industry for the CNG-powered vehicles, saying, “From my assessment of what the LSM is doing, it means the assemblers are ready for the CNG vehicle initiative.”
He urged Nigerians to embrace the initiative, noting that it is cost-effective.
“Again, looking at the safety measures being put in place here at LSM, it shows we are ready for CNG. The next set of conversion to be done here will be the trucks,” he said.
Reacting, the Managing Director of Lanre Shittu Motors, Mr. Taiwo Shittu, said the company had delivered some CNG-powered mass transit buses for airport shuttle.
He disclosed that LSM could do six units daily, adding that the firm saw the huge business in the CNG-powered vehicles shortly after the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government and went straight into it.
He said, “We know from our knowledge of automobile – this is our 43 years in the industry – that once the fuel subsidy is removed, the next option is the CNG. So we went straight into CNG vehicles.
“As we speak, we are converting our vehicles to run on CNG. We have our CNG conversion kits on the ground. We have mass transit buses already at the airports for shuttle, assembled here in Nigeria.
“Another set of CNG mass transit buses have arrived at the seaport and being cleared. This will be for commercial operation. And it will reduce operation cost by twenty-five per cent.
Shittu said LSM placed premium on after-sale support, with over N2 billion worth of spare parts in its store.
“For any vehicle or auto brand to survive in Nigeria, after-sale support is very important.
“We have been sole distributor in Nigeria for many brands including MAN and JAC. Having passed through this stage, we understand that no vehicle brand can make any headway in the country without adequate parts.
“A lot of made-in-Nigeria vehicles failed in the past, because the handlers did not realize that without sufficient spare parts, they cannot survive,” he said.
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