Nissan Nigeria says its market share is rising partly as a result of investments made in response to Nigeria’s new auto policy.
In the period March 1st 2014 to April 31st 2015, Nissan significantly increased its share of the automotive market segment in Nigeria from 4 percent to 10 percent, the firm said in a statement.
Managing Director and President of for Nissan South Africa, Mike Whitfield, said:
“We have worked side by side with the Stallion Group to achieve what is a very encouraging increase in our share of the key Nigerian market.
Within Nissan we have a strong desire to make a full and lasting contribution to rebuild automotive industrialisation in Nigeria and to play an important role in the growth of the manufacturing sector.”
The global Stallion Group partnered with Nissan in April 2013, forming Stallion NMN Limited, which became the sole manufacturer, importer and distributor of Nissan vehicles in Nigeria.
Since then the number of dealerships in Nigeria has increased.
The new Victoria Island showroom was the eleventh Nissan outlet in the country – a demonstration of Nissan’s long term commitment to increase brand visibility in Africa’s most populous country.
Nissan became the first automaker to build cars in Nigeria through the collaboration with Stallion Group.
Production began at the company’s Lagos plant in April last year and already four models are now coming off the production line” Proudly Naija”, creating jobs and developing skills within the local supply chain.
Sunil Vaswani, Chairman of Stallion Group, said: “Together with Nissan we are transforming Nigeria into a notable manufacturing and distribution hub. We will provide a comprehensive range of passenger, commercial and recreational vehicles, and are currently engaged in a dynamic program of new model introductions.It is our intention to progressively build Nissan’s market share in the coming years, and transform the Nissan brand into one of the largest automakers in Nigeria.”
Jim Dando, Nissan General Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, said,
“We’re well placed in the Sub-Saharan region to meet our customers’ needs through an expanding model range, retail network and an evolving industrial footprint in Nigeria building cars ‘in’ Africa, ‘for’ Africa.
“Together with the Stallion Group, Nissan is fully committed to evolving and developing the business and playing an important part in the growth story of Nigeria’s automotive market.”
Nissan Nigeria vehicle assembly and manufacturing operation is located at along Badagry Expressway, Lagos, Nigeria. The plant is a leader in Nigeria with regards to sound environmental practice in its manufacturing process.
Nissan has three operational hubs and factories on the continent: Egypt in northern Africa, and Nigeria and South Africa in Sub-Sahara Africa.
Production of the first Nissan vehicles started at Stallion’s VON plant in Lagos in April 2014. In doing so Nissan became the first OEM automaker to build cars in Nigeria. The plant assembles the Nissan Patrol, Almera, NP300 and Urvan.
Nissan is targeting significant growth on the African continent.
In fiscal year 2013 the company sold nearly 110,000 units in Africa.
