A Look At A Silent Car Manufacturing Plant In Kano State, Nigeria - Photos

As Anambra is home to Innoson Motors such can be said of Kano State to many assembly plants in the country. One of the silent automobile company we have in Nigeria is National Truck Manufacturers LTD (NTM) also known as Gidan Fiat. NTM is based in Zaria Rd, Kano State, according to reports, the plant has have been silently manufacturing heavy-duty trucks, tippers, light-duty trucks, agricultural tractors, pick-ups as well as motorcycles for over 10 years.

One of the big achievements of NTM Ltd is that they are basically an indigenous company with staffs that locally assemble the trucks, buses and Keke Napep. Base on our little investigation, the trucks are shipped into Nigeria as CKD and they are assembled in Kano from there it gets to their respective clients and agents. It will be recalled that the Goodluck Jonathan administration in 2013 introduced the National Automotive Policy to encourage production of vehicles in Nigeria and discourage importations. Before the policy came into being import duty on vehicles coming into Nigeria was 10 percent with an additional 10 surcharge effectively making it 20 percent. But what Jonathan did was to raise it up to 35 per cent plus 35 percent surcharge to effectively make it 70 percent, thus, making Nigeria ports uncompetitive compared to West and Central Africa.

What is surprising about NTM Ltd is that they have no presence online as even their website is down, AutoReportNG managed to get a phone and we put a call through, the responder confirmed that they are truly existing and when we probed further on why the silence and why their works are not online as other firms, he said, the company is working to revive the website and also they will be on social media soon.

We look forward to when that will be.

These are images from the assembly plant in Kano State.

A Cross Section of Bikes and Keke Napep Manufacturing and Assembly

A Cross Section of Trucks

And They Make Fire Trucks Too

They assemble buses, cars and lots more...

Dangote Rolls Out Nigeria-Assembled Trucks, Targets 10,000 Vehicles

Dangote Sinotruck West Africa Limited on Tuesday rolled out its first set of locally assembled Chinese trucks as it began an eight-hour shift, assembling between four and five trucks per day at its Lagos-based plant.

The Group General Manager, Projects, Mr. Hikmat Thapa, who spoke in company with other senior managers of the company after conducting journalists round the assembly plant in Ikeja, said it was the first phase of the project.

He said that the second phase would begin in June with two shifts per day and hoped to do 24 hours daily operation moving from Semi-Knocked Down components to Completely Knocked Down (parts) assembly.



“As soon as we move on to 24-hour daily operation, we will churn out between 20 and 30 trucks per day. We are starting with SKD and now waiting for the CKD parts coming at the end of the month,” he said.

Thapa said the project was a joint venture between Dangote, owned by Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Sinotruck of China, with the former controlling 65 per cent, and the later, 35 per cent.

According to him, the plant, with installed capacity to assemble 10,000 trucks annually, will take care of local demand as well as produce for export to some West African countries.

Thapa also hinted about the company’s plan to start producing the cabin needed by the locally assembled vehicles, which would signal the inclusion of local content in the truck production venture.

He said engine production was part of the programme of the company but did not give details.

The company said, in a statement, it would assemble and produce full range of commercial vehicles covering heavy duty truck, medium truck, light truck and other semi-trailers, which would create 3,000 jobs for Nigerians.

“It will also provide new employment opportunities, improve local automobile technology, equipment and technology level, promote the economic development in Nigeria,” it added.

Giving a background of the technical partner, it stated, “Sinotruk (Hong Kong) Limited, which was eestablished in 1960, has the largest production and export base for heavy-duty truck in China.”