The president of Coscharis  Motors, Dr. Comas Maduka has described the production of Ford vehicles from its plant in Lagos as another milestone in the history of the company. As part of its ambitious expansion in Africa, Ford Motor Company assembled the first Ford Ranger in Nigeria last week.

The all new 2016 Ford Ranger was presented to the press at Coscharis showroom in Lekki, Lagos in a ceremony attended by top Ford Management team from sub-sahara led by the President/CEO, Mr. Jeff Nemeth.

Other senior members of Ford team from Ford sub-Sahara Africa who graced the occasion include Mr. Ocker Berry, Vice President Operation, Rob Johnson, Regional Manager Sales and Aftersales, Alisea Chetty, Corporate Communications Manager, Eugene Prinsloo, Market Manager Nigeria as well as Claude Roux and Kobus Jansen in charge of Ford Nigeria SKD team.

Vision andpolicy

The Coscharis Motors boss who could not hide his excitement over the achievement commended Ford Motors for keeping to its words to assemble cars in Nigeria as the only place, outside South Africa where Ford is assembling cars in Africa. “I specially welcome our partners from Ford Motor Company who have immensely ensured that yesterday’s vision and policy is now a reality for us today,” he said.

According to him, Coscharis was glad to celebrate the confidence of the iconic brand, Ford, reposed in us to roll plant in Nigeria. He added that “this milestone marks another first in the evolution of the company towards remaining timeless in its relevance.

Dr. Maduka disclosed that the though the automotive policy was introduced in 2014, the idea to set up an assembly plant was conceived by his company four years ago which came to fruition last week with their reliable partner, Ford rolling out the first pick up, a Ranger from the plant.

Urging he Federal Government to give to the auto policy the best support it could, Dr. Maduka explained that the auto industry can create jobs and guarantee economic growth. On their part, he said: “Coscharis Motors as one of the leading indigenous automobile dealershipm is showing its commitment to substaining the automotive policy though the assembly plant which is basically a semi knockdown plant.

Ford, he said had supported them with all fitted equipment and technical backup as well as training their personnel to handle the assembly plant. Apart from the Ikeja plant, Maduka that another one is already constructed and will be ready for commissioning in 2016. The new plant when completed at their Awuyaya Lekki Group head office will produce more vehicles to meet Nigerians vehicles needs.

Also speaking, the Group Managing Director, Mr. Josiah Samuel stated that it had been their long time goal to create a strategic partnership between Ford and Coscharis beyond strict dealership representation,  adding that this official announcement of manufacturing, signals the long journey  to realising this all important objective.

According to him, it is not only leveraging on over 100 years of experience of Ford in manufacturing of automobile but without doubt the launch of our SKD/CKD operation will most certainly give further visibility to the Ford brand in Nigeria and catalyse our quest for continuous increase in market.

Mr. Samuel further explained that Nigeria is one of the largest auto markets in Africa and the seventh most populous economy in the world with a growing middle class of over 38 million and potential vehicle market of one million vehicles annually.  To this end, he said the Nigerian automotive industry with its current.

 

 

 

Source: Vanguard Nigeria

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