By Suleiman Anyalewechi
Roxettes, an indigenous vehicle manufacturing plant is set to kick-start operations at its 40 000 annual automobile units assembling plant in Obu-Aku, Ukwa East Local Council of Abia State. This heart-warming venture will begin in October 2024.
This is just as the promoter, Dr Kaycee Orji lauded Governor Alex Otti for creating the enabling environment for the dream of adding to the number of indigenous vehicle productions outfits in the country to be realised.
Dr Orji who announced the proposed date of rolling out the first set of automobiles from the stable of Roxetes during a visit to Abia State Governor on Friday, June 28, 2024, also, informed that all necessary equipment needed to start production will be in place before the end of August this year.
The Abia State-born progenitor of the second indigenous Vehicle Assembly plant, after Innoson Motors, expressed happiness that what merely began a year ago as a dream ,has come to fruition ,owing to the unwavering support received from the State Government.
” I told you about my plans to have an assembling plant and you asked me to bring it to Abia. Iam 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 plant and in less than a month, you gave us an offer letter and Certificate of Occupancy .
“I have to inform you 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.
“And ,one of the things we are doing already is the construction of the assembling plant.
“The plant will see us roll out about forty thousand (40,000) units of automobiles per annum and seventy percent (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 don’t want to sit back and watch the world move and Nigeria and Abia state are not doing anything.
“We considered Abia state as the most favourable environment to start because of current leadership .So we are going to start assembling electric vehicles in that space this year .
: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 CNG kits installed there and then the CNG cylinders so that people can run on cheaper and cleaner energy.
“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 national grid since we already have gas lines that pass through the location.
“About 1,000 Abians and Nigerians will be employed directly by the time we come on stream in October this year.”
Responding Governor Otti expressed joy over the development ,and for being briefed on the progress so far made to actualize the vision .
The Governor also expressed the hope that with time, the outfit will migrate from an assembling to a full scale manufacturing plant.
“We love that the vehicles are going to be assembled here. But ,we will be happier ,if we begin to manufacture them here .
“We understand how manufacturing happens .The way vehicles manufacturing happen 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 the end ,then you can not achieve much.
“But the most important thing is that you put together all the things at a particular location.
You have emblem that indicates that the vehicle is manufactured in Nigeria .
“That is the joy .The other thing is local content . So when you take a complete vehicle and look at components ,where are they from?
“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 another can produce rubber .
“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 the way ,they are finished in China,but a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step” Governor Otti noted
Otti informed that as a way of further encouraging the project, the State Government will soon embark on the construction of a dual carriage way from the PortHarcourt/Enugu Express Way to the host community of the plant.
“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”, Gov Otti further stated.
