Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Lanre Shittu Motors(LSM)Ltd, Taiwo Shittu has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the ongoing reforms in Nigeria’s automotive sector and mass transportation initiatives in the country through CNG buses project.
Speaking from the Havard Business School, Taiwo Shittu expressed delight over a number of measures by the current government towards rejuvenating the various auto assembly plants in the country with specific attention to assembly of CNG buses to boost public transportation and lessen the challenges faced by commuters.
Following the presidential directives that CNG buses must be a priority and preferred mode of transport by the various ministries, departments and agencies, the government has shown its determination to encourage the local auto assembly plants.
Taiwo Shittu explained during the telephone interview that by June 2024, Lanre Shittu Motors will be deploying large number of units of the LSM branded CNG buses at airports across the country and for other mass transportation needs.
He disclosed that LSM mulled the idea of CNG vehicles and saw it as the future of the local automotive industry many years ago because of the abundance of excess natural gas in the economy as well as the economic benefits of using CNG buses by both the operators and the commuters.
Taiwo Shittu assured that there are plans to start the assembly of the LSM branded CNG buses in Lagos using the best technology like in other parts or the world. Apart from assembling CNG vehicles from start to finish inside the LSM plant, the company boasts of enough kits capable of converting petroI-powered vehicles to CNG.
He allayed the fears of prospective customers of lack of quality after-sales maintenance of any stock order rolled out from the assembly plant.
For over 40 years., LSM through the visionary founder and chairman, Late Alhaji Lanre Shittu has carved an enviable niche within the automotive industry through its quality products and services. Taiwo Shittu says, introducing the LSM branded buses is one of the many ways of immortalising him.
According to Taiwo Shittu, “We have taken proactive steps in the past years to offer quality training to our technicians at various stages, levels and categories of auto assembly and after sales maintenance services”.
Upon graduation and certification, the technicians are also deployed not only to the various LSM offices nationwide, they are also being sort after by other industry stakeholders within the nation’s automotive value chain.
As at the time of filing this report, the management of Lanre Shittu Motors says that all branches of the company are currently fully equipped with state-of-the-art CNG conversion equipments while orders have been activated and running seamlessly.
The federal government allocated N100 billion from the N500 billion palliative budget to purchase 5,500 CNG vehicles (buses and tricycles), 100 electric buses, and over 20,000 CNG conversion kits.
This funding also supports the expansion of CNG refilling and electric charging stations.
