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Globe motors rolls out first Hyundai vehicle in Nigeria

By Stories by Benjamin Alade
03 August 2018   |   3:13 am
Globe Motors has started the production of Hyundai and Higer brands of vehicles in its assembly plant in Lekki, Lagos. Located along the Eleko-Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos, the plant for now has an installed capacity of 6,000 vehicles yearly, which the company said can also be increased depending on market forces. This automobile marketing company…

Hyundai Elantra

Globe Motors has started the production of Hyundai and Higer brands of vehicles in its assembly plant in Lekki, Lagos.

Located along the Eleko-Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos, the plant for now has an installed capacity of 6,000 vehicles yearly, which the company said can also be increased depending on market forces.

This automobile marketing company in Nigeria, is among the 30 accredited local auto manufacturers by the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), under the Nigeria Automotive Industry Development Plan, (NAIDP).

Globe Motors had three years ago, announced plans to set up a multi-auto assembly plant at the cost of $200 million, which many thought was an impossible task.

But the plant has become a reality, as brand new Hyundai and Higer vehicles have started to roll out from the plant.

In a chat with newsmen at the plant recently, Managing Director of the company, Victor Oguamalam, explained how the firm worked tirelessly to make the dream a reality.

“Though we are not producing at installed capacity, we have started production at the plant since 2017.

We currently have a yearly installed capacity of 6,000 vehicles at the plant, but daily production is subject to market and other forces,” he said.

According to him, over 50 staff are working in plant including engineers, technicians and administrative staff.

For now, he said, the company is operating at Semi Knock Down (SKD) level, and plans to move to Complete Knock Down (CKD) stage as soon as possible.

Globe Motors assembly plant boasts of experienced engineers who have worked in leading automobile companies and attended courses abroad.

Oguamalam noted that the company has qualified staff manning the plant, while Hyundai and Higer experts from Korea and China respectively, are always on ground to give backup to the local staff.

“Before we started assembling, Hyundai engineers came and set up the plant, trained our staff for months and we took it up from there.

They came in two batches, made up of group of engineers who installed the equipment and set up the assembly lines and the marketing department who took our staff on the marketing aspects of the business.

“Even the engineers who came to put us through mere amazed at the competence of our staff.

They confessed that technical staff in Nigeria are knowledgeable and pick faster than in other countries where they tried to set up plants.”

He attributed their ability to pick up fast to the fact that most of their staff was drawn from existing auto garages and Globe Motors workshop across the country.

“Globe Motors is reputed for its competence in automobile maintenance and we are replicating this in our assembly plants.

For over 30 years, we have been in the business of automobile so we are not new in this line of business,” he said.

Also conducting journalists round the facility, the Plant Manager, Simon Njere, explained that the plant compares with the very best in the country.

“We are well equipped with modern facilities for checking the quality of products we are producing here and our equipment are procured from Korea,” he said.

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