The Nigerian Senate Committee on Industry has inspected Dangote Sinotruck heavy duty truck plant, saying the creativity in truck production has put Nigeria on global map.
The Dangote Sinotruk West Africa Limited (DSWAL) was commended by Senators who expressed the hope that the industrial breakthrough would advance the transportation needs of the country.
The Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Industry, Shuaibu Lau, gave the commendations, recently when his committee inspected the Dangote Sinotruk West Africa Limited, Ikeja Assembly plant, and expressed satisfaction with what the Committee saw in the plant.
Lau said, the parliament was ready to provide legislative support to make Dangote Sinotruck plant compete with other manufacturers globally.
“We have listened to some of your challenges. The NASS is ready to help you in terms of legislation and policy formulation that will make you do better. We will come early next year, while we wait for what you want us to do in order to protect you.
“We are ready to protect you in terms of policy formulation. We thank Dangote for putting Nigeria in the map of industrial nations.”
In his comment, Sen. Ekong Sampson, commended Dangote for what he had been doing in the sector.
He explained that Dangote had shown enterprise and courage in what he was doing.
He, however, urged the company to look inward and improve the welfare of its staff, while inject necessary compensation plans for the staff in case of injuries and other industrial accidents.
Sen. Victor Umeh also expressed delight with Dangote, but further challenged the management to add to the lines raw materials from local sources, noting that part of backward integration should be cutting down acquired from outside.
In his remarks, Osanipin pointed out that despite the challenges in the sector, DSWAL and other manufacturers were still struggling to comply with the expected backward integration policy.
He noted that the visiting team had pointed out areas the assemblers needed to adjust.
“I am optimistic that there will be changes when we visit again for another oversight function in the first quarter of next year,” he said.
Other areas the Senate wanted Dangote to look at, are in the areas of compliance with backward integration, workers welfare, job creation and outsourcing of raw materials.
In his response, Mr. Hikmat Thapa, the Group General Manager of Dangote Sinotruk West Africa Limited, stated that despite the fact that the company was facing some challenges, the company was doing its best in areas of backward integration, workers welfare and other areas raised by the committee.
Corroborating Thapa, Mr. McDappa Ngo, Senior General Manager, HAM, appealed for support so that the company could sustain what they were doing.
He said: “We are facing a situation whereby next oversight function, you may not be able to see us. Several others like us have closed down because they can’t compete, judging from the high labour cost, high overhead and other operational costs.
“We have been surviving from 2017 till now because Dangote has been using money from his other businesses to sustain this. You have to come to our rescue because it is an emergency as it is.”
The senate committee members were taken through the vehicle manufacturing processes, the cabin trimming session, chassis assembly line, paint shop, sales, services and spare parts session, amongst others.
Other committee members on the tour were Sen. Sadiq Umar and Sen. Benson Agadaga.
Though DSWAL started operations in 2017, completely knocked down (CKD) manufacturing commenced in June, 2024 following a commissioning ceremony presided over by the Sen. President, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Built to produce commercial vehicles, covering heavy duty trucks, medium trucks and light trucks, Dangote Sinotruk is a joint venture between Dangote Group (65 per cent), Sinotruk of China (30 per cent) and Andaz (5 per cent).
Among the visiting team was Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, the Director-General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC); Mr. Sani Musa Director, Policy, NADDC and Mrs. Felicia Oyebolu, Deputy Director, Press and Protocol, NADDC.
