Ford Motors shrugs off Boko Haram, bets on Africa's biggest economy with ... - Mail & Guardian Africa
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. , 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,... 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. Ford will also consider using the Nigerian plant to supply other West African countries, he said. Ford sold about 4,000 vehicles in Nigeria last year and is on pace for a similar level in 2015, Nemeth told reporters on Tuesday. In South Africa, Ford produces the Ranger at an assembly plant in Pretoria and manufactures the Duratorq engine at a factory in Port Elizabeth. 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... Source: mgafrica.com
