Leadership (Abuja)
Grace Azubuike
1 August 2008
As indigenous auto manufacturer, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) Limited, prepares for the local production of Peugeot 307 sedan, it would need to inject the sum of N3.5 billion to make the project a success.
Speaking to correspondents at PAN headquarters in Kaduna, the Managing Director of PAN, Dr. Haroun Aliyu, disclosed that the full-scale production of 307 will take effect from January, 2009, although the test-run of its engine would be carried out in December, 2008.
Aliyu explained that it had to take the company so long to begin this project because the new owners of the company needed to do some cleaning after acquiring it from initial owners, Automobile Peugeot France (AP France).
"We are entrepreneurs. After taking over from PAN, hitherto owned by the Federal Government, we felt that we could not run any project without taking care of certain things. We needed to carry out some in-house cleaning and upgrading before we launched the project. Today, you are witnessing the outcome of the changes that we have made since taking over the company," he explained.
The T6, according to him, is a baby of the old T5, which China first produced in 2001 before it was modified in 2004 as T6.
From next January, Nigeria would become the third country that produces the 307 sedan, after China and Argentina.
Aliyu also hinted that in producing the 307, PAN would be producing a total of 8,760 units of cars in 2009 as it would be turning out 24 units of the car from its Kaduna-based plant on a daily basis, adding that the reason for this low production is due to the company's inability to go on more than one production shift per day.
He particularly explained that PAN would be engaging the services of 7,000 Nigerians within the first four years of going into production, and hopes to increase the figure later on.
"When production commences, PAN can only produce 24 cars per day. This is because today we are running only one shift. If we move to the next grade of our production, we will have the capacity to run two shifts daily, and that would be based on demand, which also means that we can do 48 cars per day. We are projecting to engage the services of 7,000 hands within the first four years of production, and this can move up to 14,000 hands as we go on," he said.
Earlier, the Managing Director promised to improve on Peugeot's standard, pointing out that it had survived a long time and would continue to survive in the country.
"The 307 is going to be our future. We attach so much importance to this project. It is a new beginning for Nigeria. The new making of PAN from now henceforth would be 307 sedan. This is a Nigerian thing, and so we cannot afford to play with it," Aliyu promised.
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