THISDAY

Nord Auto Assembly Plant Debuts in Nigeria, Guarantees Lower Cost

- Stories by Bennett Oghifo

Anautocomp­anyhassetu­pshop 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-inNigeria 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.”

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Nord car

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