Mahindra to expand business operations in Nigeria

In a bid expand and boost the automobile, power and agricultural businesses in Nigeria and Africa, India’s largest utility vehicle and world tractor manufacturers, Mahindra Group is set to open its operations in the country.

President and Chief Operations Officer, Mahindra Agricultural Business, Askok Sharma, disclosed this to journalists at a press briefing in Lagos.

According to him, “Nigeria offers opportunities for all the verticals within the automotive and farm equipment sectors, notably automobile, tractors, agricbusinesses, gen-sets, trucks,buses and two wheelers.

This is in line with our company’s focused strategy of introducing one Mahindra in Africa where we shall offer our entire galaxy of products and services through a single window”.

Sharma pointed out that Mahindra, with its wide range of world class power solution products, would address the challenges of power shortage being faced in the Nigerian economy.

He added that the company intends to play its role by strengthening operations to offer power generating sets in a range of 5-200KVA for telecom, residential and corporate customers.

As for employment opportunities, these new offices will have local employees who would be involved in developing and selling products for the local markets.

He also noted that the company plans to improve the productivity of farmers through driving the mechanization of Nigerian farms by partnering with government and other agriculture value chain players.

Sharma noted that this would be done by accelerating execution of government agriculture programmes thereby driving farmer prosperity in line with its vision of farm tech prosperity.

Beside being the world’s largest tractor company by volume, Sharma said Mahindra has worked intensively in India with the farming community which it offers solutions on how to improve agriculture productivity. “As for employment opportunities, these new offices will have local employees who would be involved in developing and selling products for the local markets.

Our Nigeria operations would be handled by a few experts and a significant number of local populations which would aid us to further in getting acquainted with the Nigerian economy and culture”.

Mahindra & Mahindra currently has active presence in 30 countries across Africa with assembly bases in Chad, Mail, Benin, Ghana and Nigeria and generates business worth $120 million yearly in Africa.

The group sees great growth potential in Africa with the business growing by 10 times to around $1 billion in five to seven years’ time.

The group has also indicated interest to establish a strong local presence in order to fully leverage the opportunities offered by Africa. Mahindra has a subsidiary in South Africa and has recently opened a new office in Kenya. It will set up two or more offices in Egypt and Nigeria.

The president stated: “Africa is an important region for the Mahindra group with special focus on markets like Nigeria and Angola. As a part of its plan to tap the $1 billion opportunity in Africa by 2020, Mahindra will work towards intensifying current business operations and enhance sales and service capability”. In the mobility space, the company currently sells three wheelers in Nigeria.

It also has several gasoline and left hand drive (LHD) vehicle in its pipeline that is suited to local conditions. It has recently introduced a new range in construction equipment, a 2-wheeler and passenger cars, small and heavy commercial vehicle that are suited to local needs of the market.

With its strong legacy of world class tractors, the company has been present in Nigeria in association with the KewalramChanrai Group in the last 10 years and sells tractors in the range of 35 to 95 HP.

With a footprint of 200 dealers and 13 service centers across the country, Mahindra is the leading brand in Nigeria with a tractor assembly plant in Northern Nigeria.