Ford Motor Co. will start assembling its Ranger compact pickup at a new facility in Nigeria this year as the second-largest U.S. automaker seeks to take advantage of demand in Africa’s biggest economy.
Ford has formed a partnership
with Coscharis Motors Ltd., a local distributor, to build the vehicles from
body parts and components imported from South Africa, at a plant about 750
kilometers (466 miles) southwest of the capital Abuja, Jeff Nemeth, the head of
Ford’s sub-Saharan African operations, said in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
The assembly plant, capable of
assembling 5,000 trucks a year, is Ford’s second in Africa and will produce
vehicles for sale in the Nigerian market.
The country’s large population
and potential for economic growth, as well as government policies aimed at
encouraging industrialisation, make it an an attractive market, Nemeth said in
an interview on Tuesday.
Ford will also consider using the
Nigerian plant to supply other West African countries, he said. “We’re
going to have to watch how policy evolves, how free-trade zones evolve,” he
said. “But we believe that the time is right to enter Nigeria to be
on the right strategic footing looking into the future.”
The Ford announcement will come
as a big boost for Nigeria, whose currency the naira is under extreme pressure
in the face of plummeting oil revenues, and which has seen upsurge in
terror attacks by the militant group Boko Haram, since Muhammadu Buhari
was sworn in as president at the end of May.
In early July Volkswagen AG
resumed resumed building vehicles in Nigeria for the first time in 25
years in a bid to foster sales growth in Africa.
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