By Moses Akaigwe
About a year and a half after the Lagos State Government sealed a Joint Venture Agreement with CIG Motors for the establishment of a vehicle assembly plant in the state, Gov. Babajude Sanwo-Olu last week visited the construction site to ascertain the progress of work.
The governor was received at the plant located on WEMPCO Road in Ogba, by the Chinese investor and Chairman of the CIG Group (owners of CIG Motors Company Limited), Chief Diana Chen.
Gov. Sanwo-Olu who was pleased with the welter of activities at the site, commended Chief Chen and CIG Motors for their commitment, saying he was indeed glad that this dream project was becoming a reality.He said it was pleasing that the site was “live with structures and assembly equipment,” and getting well prepared for the production of vehicles.
The plant, expected to be commissioned by the end of the year, will have a jointly-run factory, for the production of different models of brand new cars.
It was learnt that the projection is for the GAC plant to first have a production capacity of 5,000 vehicles, after which it will be pushed to 10,000 vehicles per year.
The governor remarked, “We are happy with the level of work at the site and the commitment of our partners to this project.
“Our end goal is to stop buying fully built vehicles from other countries. We want to be able to have an assembly line where we can employ our citizens in an automobile production chain.”