Toyota Nigeria celebrates Auto Company of the Decade award

Toyota (Nigeria) Limited (TNL) ended the 2024 business year on a high emerging as the Auto Company of the Decade.

The company excited about the honour it received at the recently held Nigeria Auto Journalists Association in Lagos, which was one of the biggest awards at the event.

It was the first time any automobile firm in Nigeria would be given such major honour at the annual awards, which entered its 13th edition last year.

This is the second landmark honour bestowed on the TNL at the close of the 2024 business year.

Just a few days earlier, the company was named as one of the top 50 brands in Nigeria, an annual assessment of top brands in the country.

TNL commenced operations in 1996 as a wholly indigenous and privately owned company, after it was appointed by Toyota Motor Corporation as its sole distributor in Nigeria.

The company, in partnership with its seven accredited dealers, has remained a forerunner in the marketing of Toyota products in the Nigerian automobile industry, providing exceptional services in auto sales, services, and distribution of genuine parts.

The firm has over the years consistently won many NAJA awards and other top-rated laurels for its quality products and services in the automotive industry.

Apart from vehicle sale, the company says it has invested heavily in after-sale service delivery by constructing a global Standard Service Centre in Lagos, which also doubles as a Dojo Centre, (a Japanese word for a place of immersive or experiential learning) for specialised services to customers and on-the-job training for its dealers.

The firm recalled its efforts in building the brand, noting, “In its early days in Nigeria, the Toyota brand had to strive for acceptance, particularly in the face of stiff competition from the established brands at the time.

“The ingenuity and resourcefulness of the board of directors under the indefatigable chairmanship of Chief Michael Ade. Ojo OON, coupled with his vision, industry, and tireless commitment to the brand for over 50 years, paved the way for the acceptance and success of the Toyota brand in Nigeria.”

Reacting to the honours including being rated as one of the top 50 brands in Nigeria this year, Managing Director of TNL, Mr. Kunle Ade-Ojo, said the company was excited and he attributed the success of the company to its loyal customers.

“I am quite elated and grateful to our esteemed customers as we celebrate a remarkable achievement – being recognised as the top automotive brand among the Most Popular and Top 50 brands in Nigeria (powered by Brand Nigeria).

“This could not have been achieved without the patronage and loyalty of our customers,” he said.

The Toyota (Nigeria) boss also said this was a recognition of the company’s latest huge investment in innovation and new technologies in the auto industry.

Apart from adequately stocking quality spare parts, it also has continued to raise topnotch workers in the face of challenging economy.

“As a matter of fact, our success would also not have been possible without the significant investments we have made vis-à-vis our well-stocked spare parts stores, latest technologies in the industry and most importantly, our people.

“Our team of dedicated professionals; from our skilled technicians to our committed staff members and accredited dealers, are the driving force behind our achievements.”

Rolls-Royce, Daewoo gave my father breakthrough – Lanre Shittu Motors MD, Taiwo Shittu

Lanre Shittu Motors’ Managing Director, Mr Taiwo Shittu, was recently crowned Nigeria’s Auto Personality of the Year and the late father and founder of the auto company received a posthumous award for his developmental strides in the sector.

The MD, in this interview, reflects on the implications of these awards, the genesis of the company and its current state as well as other automotive industry issues

How do you feel winning the Auto Personality of the Year award?

First, I have to express gratitude to Almighty Allah. I thank Him for the opportunity given to me. I feel happy to be so honoured. I know now people are watching everything everyone is doing in the industry. This award, I know, is as a result of hard work. This also means working harder henceforth. One has set the pace; one cannot therefore afford to lower the standards or go down.
I also see this as an opportunity to do more for the industry and ensure that it does not collapse.

Where do you hope to take the company in the next five years?

I give God the glory for what we’ve done so far. The credit goes to my late father Alhaji Razaq Alanni Olanrewaju Shittu, for building the brand name. There is nothing like a good name. If you don’t leave anything for your children other than a good name, the sky is the limit for them. In our own case, he left us money and the good name.
We can’t thank him enough for leaving us with a good name. You can imagine that everywhere we turn to in the country, once we mention we are Lanre Shittu’s sons, we are ushered in immediately. People would say ‘Your father was a good man. He won’t cheat if you did any business with him. His word was his bond; he never broke his promises’. I have heard this many times. And the only thing we can do is to build on this legacy.
In the next five years, I see us growing the LSM brand name to become a sought-after brand in Nigeria. We are starting off with the commercial vehicles. Already, we have the LSM-branded CNG buses, 100 per cent CNG buses, in Nigeria. Right now, we are penetrating the market with the CNG buses. We want to bring in the smaller buses – the 18-seater and 11-seater buses (korope). We have the pickup too, which is also a commercial vehicle, lined up.
From experience, I can tell you that once the commercial sector has tested and found your brand worthy, it will be very easy to migrate to the passenger cars.
When the commercial vehicles are doing well and there is no downtime, you are in business. By the time you bring in the passenger vehicles, it will be a walkover.
One of the reasons we are coming out with the LSM brand is to immortalise our late father’s name.

We see ourselves taking a big chunk of the commercial vehicle segment in Nigeria in the next five years and making the LSM a household name in Nigeria. Lanre Shittu Motors as a company is a household name already, doing other automakers brands. But we want to shift the focus to the LSM brand with high after-sale service. We had represented a lot of brands in the past such as Mack, Yutong, Sany and JAC; we have learnt so much in 43 years from the industry on how to build a brand to penetrate the market – the support, communication. The good name and goodwill will be added advantage for us.

What is the secret behind the success of the Lanre Shittu Motors even after the demise of the founder?

I will say it’s God; the good legacy left behind by the founder, our father, and the unity among the 20 of us – his children, for trusting and believing in me to lead the business. A lot businesses collapse after the death of the owners. Once a business founder is dead, the next you hear is that a fight has broken out and while one person is taking the arm, another is claiming the leg, the other is going for the body. And in six months, the whole empire is gone down.
In our case, we have 20 siblings that are cooperative and believe in my ability to lead the business with my other brothers.
We had a father who never spoiled us. He taught us sincerity, commitment and accountability. All these are coming to play to make his business and legacies live after his death. Our target is to make it live to the next generation; that’s when we can say we are really successful.

What is the relationship between Lanre Shittu Motors and the Mack truck brand in Nigeria?

We still buy spare parts from Mack to support the truck brand in Nigeria. We sold the last Mack truck in Nigeria. No other auto company aw we speak has brought any Mack truck into the country. We are still supporting the brand. Some of my teams are in big oil and gas companies in the South-South catering to their Mack trucks. Our mission is to be one of the best auto solution providers with perfect after-sale service in the country. So we still support every brand that we have done in the past with after-sale service. That way, it will be easier for us to shift the customers to our own newer brand. It is the support they are buying now, not the brand.

Are the Mack trucks sold eight years ago still on the road in Nigeria?

Yes, they’re still on the road. I sold 30 Mack trucks last month.

Are you partnering other automakers to produce the LSM brand of vehicles?

We are partnering reputable automakers. For us at the LSM, we are careful not to select as partners anyone not in the top three of the segment of vehicle we’re doing in that country. For instance, in the our pickup segment, we are going to China for the selection of partners. Our target is for the first or the second in that country’s pickup.

Where are you in the CNG buses now?
For the CNG buses, we are assembling in our own brand name LSM. This is a new opportunity. It was a big risk we took; but it’s a risk that is paying off because we believe in the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We knew when he said fuel subsidy was gone, the next thing would be CNG-powered vehicles. It was clear that Nigerians would not run to electric vehicles as an immediate option.

Electric vehicles can only be driven by solar in this country. The high inflation has knocked off the national electricity grid to drive the EVs. You need an investment of over N300 million to have a commercial electric charging station. How many Nigerians can afford this?

Are you saying Nigeria is not ripe for electric vehicles?
Nigeria is ripe for EVs but we’re not yet there. But we’re there on CNG, with the government leading the initiative and abundance of natural gas. I see a lot CNG stations fast coming up. Lagos, Benin, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Ilorin among others are cities where CNG refilling stations are springing up.
The CNG idea is taking shape. A trip to the South-East now costs N53,000 per person (I was told). But with N72,000 of CNG, you can almost fill the tank of a bus and drive to the East conveniently. With a mass transit CNG bus, you can take a large number of people to a 400km destination on N72,000 worth of CNG. You cannot get that anywhere.

Apart from the high capacity CNG buses, our 18-seater and 11-seater will come out early next year. Thereafter, we will move into the passenger vehicles.

Are you planning to go into the coaches for long distance travel?

We missed the business this year. It requires adequate planning. We intend to go into it next year. It should be around September next year in preparation for the end of the year travels.

How did your father, founder of LSM, Alhaji Olanrewaju Shittu, start the automobile business?

He started the automobile business small, with three vehicles at Aguda, in the Surulere area of Lagos.
It was from a shoe business that he switched over to the auto business.
In starting, he travelled with his wife out of the country to buy things including vehicles around 1978. He bought the vehicles in Valencia, Spain.

Shoe and car business are not related. How did he suddenly develop interest in automobile business?

He just felt like changing his line of business. It was Debasco Motors Chairman, Otunba Babatunde Onakoya, that put him through. Debasco was a big auto company in Lagos at that time.

My father was seen as creditworthy, so people trusted him and were always willing to give him vehicles on credit.
He would go to Ogbomosho to buy six vehicles, by would come back to Lagos with additional six vehicles on credit. They had no doubt that he would pay back quickly.
Sometimes, he would travel as far as Kaduna to buy 12 cars from PAN, he would be the last driving the last vehicle while others were ahead driving all the way to Lagos.
This gave the auto company the strength to grow fast from the three vehicles he started with.

Which brand gave him a breakthrough?
It’s Daewoo and Rolls Royce that gave him a real breakthrough. That is why we have the signs of the two brands engraved on the wall of the LSM office at Alaka Lagos.
Lanre Shittu Motors was the only one selling the Rolls Royce then. That was in the 1990s.

Was he a car freak?

Yes, he loved cars. He used to have a Rolls Royce. But no longer had it before he died. What he had was a Mercedes-Benz Mayback. His car garage was not packed full. Even though he was a car dealer, he changed his main car every 10 years. He was a very prudent man. At the beginning of his adult life, he had many cars; in the middle, he was prudent It was at the end that he bought some flashy cars such as Lexus L600, MayBack 650 engine – at that time only he and ex-President Muhammadu Buhari had that car. He bought the car then because there were three weddings in the family. By time he died, the car had only ran 600 miles. He also had a Ford Expedition, which he liked to drive. He had a Lexus LX570 First Edition almost the same time.
He was a family-oriented man.

Jetour attributes Nigeria’s award to customers loyalty, innovation

Jetour has been declared the fastest growing auto brand in Nigeria.

The award was announced on Wednesday December 11, 2024 in Lagos at a ceremony organised by the Nigeria Auto Journalists Association (NAJA).

Jetour representative in Nigeria, Jetour Mobility Services, has taken to its Facebook page to celebrate its customers for making this to happen, attributing the success to its commitment to innovation in creating remarkable driving experiences.

Jetour known for its luxury offerings is one of China’s most revered auto brands, a marque of Chery Holding Group established in 2018.

It mainly produces crossovers and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs).

The recognition of Jetour as the Fastest Growing Auto Brand in the country is coming about a year after its introduction into the Nigerian market.

Jetour arrived in Nigeria in the last quarter of last year. And the SUVs available for this market are X70 – Liberty, X70 Plus – Elegance, X90 Plus – Cruise and Dashing.

Chairman of the NAJA Awards Organising Committee, Mr Theodore Opara, said despite being new in the Nigerian market, the brand was quickly able to secure a prominent place for itself in the highly competitive industry and received considerable attention from new car enthusiasts.

The committee, he added, had no difficulty in picking the brand as the fastest growing in the Nigerian auto market.

The name “Jetour” is a combination of the word “jet” and “tour”, which according to the automaker signifies a “convenient journey”. And its models try to depict this connotation in designs and performance.

Jetour Mobility Services said it considered the award a great honour, adding that it was a validation of its commitment to innovation and creating remarkable driving experiences.

The firm celebrates the award on its Facebook page with the following comments:

“We’re honoured to be named the Fastest Growing Auto Brand of the Year at the prestigious NAJA Auto Awards, powered by the Nigeria Auto Journalists Association.

“This achievement is a testament to our commitment to innovation, quality, and creating unforgettable driving experiences.

“A huge thank you to our amazing customers and everyone who has been a part of the journey — your trust propels us forward! Cheers to more milestones ahead!”

Jetour says its focus is to be a leader in mobility as well as provide reasonable travel solutions for individuals and families.

Its goal is to provide an excellent vehicle that demonstrates individuality for today’s young people, it adds.

As in the global market, the brand users in Nigeria are said to be an uncompromising group of individuals, unwilling to settle for less.

Jetour is not only winning in Nigeria, it is also a toast of a section of the Saudi market. One of its models, Dashing, recently won the Best Midsize Crossover Award for 2023-2024.

National Automotive Supply Company, the authorised distributor of Jetour vehicles in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, announced that the new and advanced Jetour Dashing won the “Best Midsize Crossover” award during the awards ceremony of the 11th edition of the “PR Arabia National Automotive Award” in Saudi.

Jetour Dashing was announced as the winner at the ceremony held in mid-November in Jeddah under the patronage of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation and in the presence of several princes and VIPs, as well as representatives of regional offices of automotive brands.