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FUSO’s first assembly plant in West Africa has opened in Lagos, Nigeria. Located at the facility of CFAO along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway in the Amuwo Odofin Industrial Area of Lagos, the plant is owned by the CFAO Group, through its subsidiary, CFAO Equipment, the sole distributor of the FUSO brand in Nigeria, in conjunction with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC), one of Asia’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers. The Nigerian FUSO plant shares MFTBC’s stringent quality standards and is the second FUSO truck plant in Africa.
Present at the inauguration held Thursday, November 16, 2017 was Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okey Enelamah, who was represented by the Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Mr. Jelani Aliyu and other top officials of the company. The foreign dignitaries were led by Mr. Ilan Elad, Director International Sales Operations, Daimler Trucks Asia and Mr. Richard Bielle, Chairman and CEO of CFAO Group. Chairman of CFAO Nigeria Plc, Mr. Gbenga Oyebode, and CFAO Nigeria Managing Director, Mr. Thomas Pelletier, played host to numerous government functionaries and captains of industry that were present.
The plant capacity is expected to ramp up to 500 units a year with the production of the Canter truck, the market leader in its segment. The Canter truck has segment advantage in the areas of reliability, ruggedness, low maintenance cost and particularly meets the economic needs and requirements of the Nigerian end users.
With the commissioning of this plant, CFAO and MFTBC are targeting additional growth in the emerging Nigerian market by leveraging on their strengths, expertise, and efficient network.
This local assembly plant greatly boosts job creation and local content development as indigenous contractors were extensively engaged from the design to the construction stages of the plant in addition to employment of Nigerian Engineers, Technicians and Interns in acquiring qualitative competency.
According to Mr.Richard Bielle, Chairman and CEO of CFAO: “The inauguration of this new FUSO plant coincides with the celebration of CFAO’s 115th year in Nigeria. CFAO Nigeria Plc is present in Nigeria across the Mobility, Healthcare and Consumer goods sectors. This latest investment complements CFAO’s existing production plants – NIPEN (BIC© pens and crates) and Yamaha motorcycles. We are very proud to work alongside our partners in developing the industry and creating employment that are so important to Africa’s future.’’
