Delta’s Tricycle Plant Commences Operation Soon, Says Stallion MD

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

The Managing Director of Stallion Group, Mr Manish Rohtagi yesterday said the Delta State Tricycle Manufacturing Plant located in Asaba would commence operations in about two months’ time.

Rohtagi made this disclosure yesterday at the formal signing of the documents sealing the partnership with the Delta State Government in respect of the project.

The Delta State Investments Development Agency (DIDA), office of the State Attorney-General and Lagos-based Stallion Group’s Stallion Auto Keke Limited and the landed property leaser, signed the tripartite agreement in the office of the Secretary to Delta State Government, Asaba.

While noting that his company was delighted to do business with the Delta State Government because the location of the tricycle manufacturing plant in Asaba would open doors of opportunities for the company to do business particularly with people across the River Niger, Rohtagi said everything was being done towards rolling out tricycles from the Asaba plant early in 2022.

“Once again, I thank you, Mr Chairman (DIDA) for bring us here. I want to reassure you, as I promised you earlier, that the tricycle plant will be up and running in eight weeks from now”, the managing director said.

The Director-General of Delta State Investments Agency, Olorogun Lucky Oghene-Umoru, descelribed the signing ceremony as “another milestone in DIDA’s efforts to attract meaningful investments to Delta State.”

He thanked the governor “for all the support for all our activities and for the confidence he has repose upon DIDA, which has enabled us to achieve the successes that we have achieved so far, because in investment a lot is involved; quality assurance decisions, financial decisions and other decisions are involved.”

The Chairman of DIDA, Hon Paul Nmah, noted that the signing ceremony was a culmination of about two years of negotiation and planning during which the agency established that the Company has necessary “capacity and interest in this very important project”, saying that the choice of the state capital to site the plant was deliberate and strategic.

He said that not only was Governor Ifeanyi Okowa “very keen and supportive of this project”, Delta people including the association of tricycle owners and operators were happy to see the project unveiled about two months ago.

“This project will surely boost the economy of the state and enhance employment generation, which is very dear to the Okowa administration,” the DIDA Chairman said.

The Managing Director of Stallion Group, Mr Manish Rohtagi, Permanent Secretary, Office of Secretary to State Government, Mr Sam Diateke, representative of the state Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Mrs Rita Ekpemina, as well as the Chairman and Director-General of DIDA, Hon Paul Nmah and Olorogun Lucky Oghene-Umoru, respectively, signed the two documents formalizing the deal for the project.

The initial land lease for project, situated opposite the Asaba International Airport on the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha Expressway, is for ten years, the landlord, Dr Festus Okubor disclosed regarding the establishment of the plant, whose unveiling and groundbreaking ceremony were performed by Governor Okowa two months ago in Asaba.