UNILAG Engineering Dons Commend Coscharis Group on Assembly Plant

by Bennett Oghifo

Engineering dons of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) have commended respected auto dealer, Coscharis Motors Plc., a subsidiary of Coscharis Group, for their commitment in developing local contents in reference to their local assembly plant located in the group’s head office in Lagos.

This commendation came up during the recent courtesy visit/facility tour of Coscharis auto assembly plant by all the heads of departments (HODs) from the faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos, led by the Dean of Faculty, Professor Obanishola Sadiq, recently.

Professor Sadiq applauded the Coscharis team, led by the visionary founder, President/CEO of Coscharis Group, Dr. Cosmas Maduka for the foresight and resilience in the huge investment in the assembly plant and other aftersales facilities of all the reputable brands Coscharis represent in Nigeria. In his words, “some of us, even as academicians, never knew that Coscharis has invested such huge capital in an assembly plant that has capacity that is producing some of the automobiles we see on our roads in Nigeria today. This is highly commendable and part of the reasons why we as teachers of engineers deemed it fit to visit your facility for on – the – spot assessment of what you have and I can say for a fact that we are really excited with what we’ve seen as comparable to any world class plant you can envisage.”

Welcoming them on behalf of the President of Coscharis Group, the General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Abiona Babarinde, gave a brief historical background of the conglomerate and various sectors where the company plays. Aside the automotive sector, Coscharis equally contributes to the economic growth of the country in the IT, Logistic, Beverages, Agro – Allied sectors amongst others.

According to Babarinde, “The assembly plant that was established in 2015 was initially located at our Ikeja office as a Semi Knocked Down (SKD) plant that produced Ford Ranger and JoyLong buses before it was moved to the group head office in Awoyaya, Lagos. As at today, our assembly plant as an SKD plant produces Ford Ranger and Renault products with a capacity to deliver 30 units per day but for various challenges encountered as a local producer like low patronage, cost of production amongst others, produces about 10 units per day”.

In the same vein, Babarinde posited that Coscharis as a major player in the automotive sector in Nigeria representing some of the most respected iconic auto brands in the world like the Rolls-Royce, BMW, Jaguar LandRover, Ford, Renault and Morris Garages has consistently invested in its aftersales offerings.

“We’ve always believed that the ultimate peace of mind we can give our loyal customers relies on our capacity to deliver seamless aftersales solutions across all these great brands we represent. We invest in getting the original spare parts direct from our OEMs, same with the right tools to fix the parts and huge investment in our technicians that are certified by OEMs.

This ultimately gives us the edge in the industry at all times based on both our new models of each brands and the aftersales deliverables.”

The Faculty of Engineering, University of Lagos being one of the faculties that was established in October, 1964 when the University officially took off in 1962, has today grown through leaps and bounds to become a household name in the University, not only nationally but internationally.

Coscharis Motors, an excellent player in the automobile industry with pedigree in Sales, Aftersales and now local assembling, has been chosen by the great University to collaborate in their Faculty-Industry partnership initiative. This partnership will cut across collaborative research in the areas of Automobile, ICT, Oil & Gas; Students Industrial Works Experience (SIWES); Short term Research Leave for Academic staff in the Faculty of Engineering amongst other collaborative opportunities to deliver value to their common stakeholders.