Top Igbo leaders laud Dangote’s N63bn investment in ANAMMCO

•We have bigger plans for the S/East – DIL

By Obinna Ezugwu

Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has received praise for his decision to order 3,500 trucks worth N63 billion from Enugu based automaker, Transit Support Services which is assembling Shacman trucks at the Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company Limited (ANMMCO) factory in Emene.

Managing Director of Transit Support Services and CEO of ABC Transport, Mr. Frank Nneji had announced the investment, last week Saturday, saying that the Dangote Group had acquired 3,500 trucks from the auto maker worth N63 billion.

Nneji who spoke to journalists after a facility tour of the truck assembly line at the ANAMMCO plant, had said the supplies amounted to over 90 percent of all Shacman trucks assembled at the factory since the revival of the plant.

“About 90 per cent of trucks produced here are for Dangote. Right now at the dump, we have about 300 units. Since last year, we have done 800 units,” he said.

“Dangote Group since inception has bought about 3,500 units from us. It also patronises the Shacman trucks for its refinery currently being built in Lagos.

“This has been of tremendous benefit for the people in the South-East. For more than seven years, this place was shut down. There was no activity until Shackman came and we made an agreement with the Shacman Group and we started skeletally.

“We were only able to start full production of trucks when we offered logistics solutions to the Dangote Group. That was in 2016 when we started the first agreement for 500 trucks. With this, many workers of ANAMMCO who had been at home had to come back to work; some local suppliers of lubricants, electrolyte and the rest had to return to business.”

Nneji had also noted that the project has kept the hitherto dormant Onne Port busy, as it is used for the delivery of vehicle components supplied to the ANAMMCO plant by its partner from China, Shaanxi Heavy Duty Automobile Import & Export Company.

It’s a move that comes at a time when there are growing suggestions by some that the continent’ wealthiest man has refused to look in the direction of the Southeast in terms of his investment despite the zone offering him huge cement market, and opinion leaders say it’s a good move, even as he has promised more investments.

“It’s a good development. Dangote is a darling of Lagos State because he brought his refinery here. If that refinery was taken to Umuzi Anam in Anambra State, it would have been very near to crude oil. But he brought it to Lagos,” noted Bar. Oscar Onwudiwe, President, Igbo think tank group, Aka Ikenga.

“If you notice also, the merchants that are selling and distributing the bulk of his products are people of Igbo origin. Yet, until now, he had no investment in Igbo land.

“So, if he now makes this move by investing in ANAMMCO for them to be producing trucks for him and vehicles for us, the truth is that he will help create employment in our land. So, I support it.”

Similarly, Dr. Alex Otti, former bank CEO and governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the last governorship election in Abia State, welcomed the move as good for job creation.

“I believe that is the way to go if we want to grow this economy, create jobs, conserve foreign exchange and increase capacity utilisation,” Otti said.

Also reacting to the development, Mr. Kazie Uko, PR Consultant and CEO, Skkot Plus Nigeria Limited noted that the investment is an answer to the criticisms against Dangote for having not invested in the Southeast.

“To some extent, the N63 billion investment is an answer to the criticism,” he noted

“Even though it’s not directly ANAMMCO, it’s a kind of franchise with Nneji’s Transit Support Services. But that place had been fallow until Nneji came in, and Dangote placing that kind of order is commendable. We are talking about 3500 trucks. It is huge.

“He could have as well imported those vehicles from China, or even his own Sinotruck. So, yes, I think it does answer to whatever criticism anyone or any group of individuals may have made against him for not looking towards the Southeast for his investment.”

Uko said, however, that it’s not just enough to accuse Dangote of not investing in the Southeast as according to him, there is also need to find out why he has not done so.

“The thing is that one has to find out why he has not invested in the Southeast. Is it that we don’t have the kind of environment he requires to do his business or is it that we don’t have the kind of natural resources? When you look at his business, it’s essentially cement based. So, do we lack the natural resources to supply his factory?”

Meanwhile, Dangote has promised even more investment in the Southeast going forward, noting that the order for the 3,500 trucks was only a small beginning.

“It’s only a small stake by Dangote. You should expect a giant leap. You should expect something bigger in the near future,” Tony Chiejina, Director of Communications, Dangote Group said.

-When in 2003, Dangote decided to begin local production of cement it marked the beginning of the end of cement importation in the country. Dangote who had started in the early 80s as a mere trader of mostly imported cement, in 2003, took the very defining decision to begin cement production in country by setting up a cement plant in Obajana, Kogi State.

Started in 2003 and completed in 2007, with initial capacity of five million tonnes per day, the Obajana plant has since grown to a capacity of 10.25 million tonnes per year. In 2012, the Dangote Group set up another 6 million tonnes capacity plant in Obese, Ogun State and subsequently a 4 million capacity plant in Gboko, Benue State.

His first plant had come at a time when the country was doing 1.8 million tonnes in total per year. He did not only meet local demand, but also turned Nigeria into cement exporter. Dangote has since expanded to a number of other African countries, becoming the largest manufacturer of cement in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Since his cement success, Dangote is also huge into sugar and other food items, and only last year, his huge tomato processing plant with capacity for 1,200 metric tonnes of tomato daily restarted production in Kano. But due to scarcity of tomato to feed the plant, he again had to start his farms with a strain of tomato that could yield 60 tonnes per hectare.
But Dangote’s biggest investment in the last decade has been in the oil and gas industry. His $17 billion Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, about the largest in the world, located at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, with capacity to handle 650,000 barrels per day could, like his cement investment, see the end of petrol importation in Nigeria and thus free up about $9billion used to import refined crude annually.

The fertilizer plant, dubbed the “8th wonder of the world” by Femi Otedola, former CEO of Forte Oil, is currently on test run and ready for official commissioning, while the refinery itself is 75 percent completed and billed to start production early 2021.

With those almost ready to come on stream, the Kano state born billionaire has since set his eyes on the auto industry, in part to feed the demand of the refinery and petrochemicals industry, as well as the cement plants and, as is probably the case with his investment in Peugeot, help in the country’s quest for import substitution.

A few years ago, in 2017, Dangote entered into a joint venture with Chinese auto manufacturer, Sinotruk to birth a $100 million Dangote Sinotruk West Africa Limited with head office at Oba-Akran, Ikeja, Lagos, to assemble different kinds of trucks and buses in the country. According to the terms of the venture, Dangote owns 65 percent of the venture, while Sinotruk owns 35 percent.

The plant with capacity to assemble 16 trucks per shift and 10,000 annually has since commenced production, producing for Nigeria and West Africa market. In November 2018, the company announced it was increasing local input into the plant to 60 percent and subsequently began production of commercial vehicles with over 3,000 jobs to be created across the country.

Trucks made by the company – which range from mini to heavy duty trucks – are making increasing inroads into local and sub-regional market, challenging those of established Japanese, German and French companies.

In another breath, Dangote, in 2018, sealed a N3.5 billion deal with French car maker, PSA Peugeot Citroen and its technical partner, Peugeot Automobile Nigeria Limited (PAN) to birth DPAN (Dangote Peugeot Automobile Nigeria, DPAN).

The new venture which has since set up assembling plant in Kaduna came about after the back and forth in his 2017 bid to acquire majority stake in PAN from Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON).

The deal which also included five northern states of Kaduna, Jigawa, Kebbi, Katsina and Kano as partners is seeing the production and assembling of cars in the country by PSA Peugeot Citroen which has 10 percent stake in the company. It was originally scheduled to roll out first set of cars in the first quarter of 2019 and was to assemble 3,500 units within that year and increase to 10,000 units subsequently.

It is in doubt whether this number is being met, but the company, located at plot 1144 PAN Drive, Kakuri Industrial Estate, Kaduna, with operations offices at Plot A, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Oluwalogbon building, Ikeja Lagos and PAN Nigeria House, Mabushi, Abuja, has since been rolling out new Peugeot 3008 SUV, 508 Sedan, Pick up vans, among others, with finance offers available at Jaiz Bank.

However, with prices significantly higher than those of foreign used vehicles in a country GDP per capita of $2,222 (nominal estimates), meaning that for a vast majority of the population cannot afford them, and a political elite more in love with foreign SUV brands like Toyota, the company has thus far not made very significant inroad.