TELL Magazine

CFAO and Yamaha Motor Corporation Japan have concluded plans to assemble Yamaha motorcycles in Nigeria.

Plans to make this happen moved a notch higher in April 2015 when the two companies jointly incorporated a company named CFAO Yamaha Motor Nigeria Limited.

The incorporation of the company was achieved less than four months after a joint venture agreement was signed by the two parents of the new company with the objective of contributing their quota to the development of the country’s transportation industry.

As a result of this incorporation, CFAO Yamaha Motor Nigeria Limited is now set to fix its factory equipment, test-run the assembly process and appoint several dealers in preparation for the first roll out of brand new Yamaha motorcycles with effect from September 2015.

This development was announced recently in Lagos by Olivier Levigne, pioneering Managing Director of the new company, who has decades of experience with automobile brands in Nigeria.

He said that his team, which includes a couple of Japanese experts from YMC is confident that Nigerians and the country at large would enjoy the benefits that Yamaha motorcycles would bring especially with quality assured local assembly line and a wide distribution network nationwide.

The assembly plant of the new company is located in the premises of CFAO within the Amuwo Odofin industrial zone in Lagos and it has a production target of 70,000 Yamaha motorcycles by 2018.

The new company will take advantage of the manufacturing and marketing expertise of Yamaha Motor Corporation, Japan and CFAO’s business experience and vast distribution network in Nigeria spanning over 113 years.

Moreover, the company will introduce other Yamaha products such as outboard engines, water vehicles (like jet-ski), ATV (all-terrain vehicles), power generators and water pumps.

Levigne announced also that the management of CFAO Yamaha Motor Nigeria Limited is ready to admit more dealers for its marine products, motorcycles, power generators and spare parts, whilst empowering authorized workshops and professionally trained mechanics for the task ahead.