Firm sets up 40, 000 capacity per annum vehicle assembly plant in Abia

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

A 40,000-unit capacity vehicle assembly plant will start production in Abia State before the end of this year. Abia-born Chief Executive Officer of ROXETTES Motors, Arc. Dr. Kaycee Orji, who disclosed this while updating the state Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, on the progress made in constructing the vehicle assembly plant at Obuaku City in Ukwa West local government of the state, said aside form producing electric vehicles, his firm would equally set up a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) conversion plant to produce CNG-driven vehicles, among that things the company was planning to produce.

As the construction of its assembly plant nears completion, Dr Orji told his host, all the equipment needed to start production were expected to arrive Abia State before the end of August 2024, while assembling of vehicles has been billed to begin by the end of this October.

Dr. Orji who came with a prototype of their vehicle model already assembled abroad for the Governor to see and feel the quality of their products, informed the state Chief Executive that his company would engage about 1, 000 Abians by the time they kick-start their operations.

 The Investor spoke on Friday, June 28th, during a meeting with the Governor. He said that what was a dream a year ago has now become a reality owing to the encouragement from Governor Otti through the provision of the enabling environment and fulfilling every promise he made to them when they shared their dream of establishing a vehicle assembling plant in Nigeria and he (Dr. Otti) pleaded with them to bring it to Abia.

Dr. Orji said: “I told you of my plans to have an assembly plant and you asked me to bring it to Abia. I am very grateful to you, 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 assembly plant and in less than a month, you gave us an offer letter and Certificate of Occupancy. I have to inform you now 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 assembly plant.

‘The assembly plant will see us rolling out about 40,000 units of automobiles per annum and 70 percent of the production would be mainly innovative products like electric vehicles and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG-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 as the most favourable environment to start because of the current leadership. So, we are going to start assembling electric vehicles in that space, this year Your Excellency.”

Continuing, the CEO of ROXETTES Motors added: “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 capability to convert any Vehicle to CNG. We are going to have the CNG kits installed there and then the CNG cylinders installed 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 crowded demands on the national grid since we already have gas lines that pass through that location.”

According to him, he described Obu-aku City as a well-planned and strategic place to do business since it has natural gas lines which is an added advantage for smart companies to do their businesses.

A highly impressed Governor Otti welcomed and thanked Arc. Dr. Kaycee Orji for coming to update him on the level of progress made on the project. Saying he was delighted to hear the cheering news that the car assembly plant would soon commence operations and expressed the hope that the company would move from assembling to full production.

“We love that the vehicles are assembled here but we will be happier if we begin to manufacture them here. We understand how manufacturing happens. The way car manufacturing happens 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 end, then you cannot do it. But the important thing is that you couple all the things together in a particular location.

“You have an emblem that says this vehicle is manufactured in Nigeria. For me, that’s the joy. The other thing that is also important is local content. So, when you take a complete vehicle and you look at the component parts, where are they from? So, 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 someone else can produce rubber somewhere.”

“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 in the way they can finish it in China but a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step,” the Governor said.

He said that he was happy that the ROXETTES Motors CEO listened to him and agreed to set up the assembly plant in Abia and announce that the state government build a dual carriageway to Obuaku, where the company is sited, to improve access.

“I have instructed the Commissioner for Works moments ago, we are going to build a dual carriage way into the city from the Enugu-Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway.” Governor Otti promised. 

Also promising to increase the state’s equity in the company, the Governor said “I know we worked out the equity of the State on evaluation of land, which I believe is less than two percent. 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.”

As a firm believer in local production, the Governor also told his guest that the State would place orders for his company’s vehicles. “So, we will also place orders for some of the vehicles. We strongly believe that a major part of our problem is that we are almost 100 per cent import dependent. Virtually everything we consume today is imported. The pressure that puts on foreign exchange is enormous. By the time we encourage local production; eat what we produce and produce what we eat, I believe that the economy will be a lot better and stronger,” the Governor said.

He encouraged others who have such big dreams to come to Abia State, assuring that the State will support them to realise their dreams.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Executive Governor, Citizen Ukoha Njoku Kalu, disclosed that Dr. Orji was accompanied by a popular Nollywood Actor, Ofia Mbaka, who is one of the Ambassadors of ROXETTES Motors.