During a recent visit to Calabar in Cross River State, southeast Nigeria, Groidis Peter, the director of Sirieco Company, a Slovak company, announced his intention to set up a plant there to assemble electric cars and manufacture the new-generation incandescent bulbs.
A team from Sirieco Company, a Slovak manufacturer of electric cars, has just visited Nigeria, in the state of Cross River. The delegation visited the Ayade industrial park in the city of Calabar. Sirieco company wants to assemble electric cars in Nigeria. A strategic choice since Nigeria alone is a market of 190 million people. In addition, the country is located halfway between West and Central Africa, a great opportunity for a car manufacturer who wants to produce cars adapted to the African continent.
The Slovak company delegation visited the Ayade Industrial Park with Ben Ayade, the Governor of Cross River State. “We (…) have offered to build their factory on order and free of charge in order to encourage them to set up. Once we have achieved this goal, the youth of Cross River will gradually begin to benefit from technology transfer,” said Ben Ayade.
A sector that is still in its infancy, but promising
“We hope to set up the car assembly plant in the Ayade industrial park. We want to establish a strong working relationship with the Cross River State government that will lead to the creation of a centre that will be second to none in Africa,” said Groidis Peter, President and CEO of Sirieco Company after the visit to the Ayade Industrial Park. He took the opportunity to address journalists in Cross River State to announce that his company also intends to install a plant to produce energy-efficient light bulbs for street lighting.
Sirieco Company is not the only automotive company interested in electric power in Nigeria. In 2018, PSC Solar, the research and development arm of PSC Industries, announced its intention to install electric vehicle charging stations in several African countries, including Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Niger. The installation of Sirieco Company could democratise the use of electric cars in Nigeria and thereby accelerate the PSC Solar project.
Jean Marie Takouleu
