DANGOTE SETS TO ACQUIRE PEUGEOT NIGERIA AS HIA PRODUCT

According to the Ahmed Kuru, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AMCON, the process is only being delayed by the required approval from the Central Bank

of Nigeria (CBN), which is the supervisory agency for AMCON.

“We have concluded all processes on the bids since about two months ago, all we are waiting for (now) is the approval of the central bank,”Ahmed noted.

According to information from Reuters, the acquisition is to be made by a consortium ofDangote, Kaduna and Kebbi state governments and Bank of Industry (BOI).

Mr Nasir Elrufia, the Governor of Kaduna state in March 2016 during the Kaduna International Trade Fair hinted that the state government is considering acquiring the automobile company towards repositioning and achieving a full optimal capacity of the plant.

“Our hope is that when we acquire the majority share of the company, we will restructure it to operate to full capacity of assembling between 90,000 and 100,000 cars yearly.

“We have the support of PAN as well as the government of France in this drive.

“We are determined to bring back all industries related to Peugeot established in Kaduna as part of plans to ensure that every youth in Kaduna State has something doing,”Nasir stated.

The latest move by African richest man,Alhaji Aliko Dangote shows he is expanding his business empire to the automobile industry.

In 2005, the Dangote group acquire the Osogbo Steel Rolling Mill from the Federal Government. Earlier this year, the group commenced tyre manufacturing.

In April 2017, Dangote Group, in conjunction with a Chinese truck maker, SinoTruck, commenced assembling of trucks in Nigeria. 

Industry experts contacted on this acquisition noted that there is a high possibility that the acquisition will scale through, considering the Buy Nigeria Initiative of the Federal government.

Also, among the recently signed executive order by the Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo is support of local content in public procurement while the Federal government remains one of the biggest customers of PAN.