South African Automotive Week
Opportunities in Africa – Nissan Case Study
M
ike Whitfield, managing
director of Nissan South
Africa, says that Africa
is the last untapped frontier, with a
mushrooming middle class that will
reach 500 million people by 2020. And
Africa has demographics, urbanisation
and tech savvy people on its side, which
creates many areas of opportunity.
Whitfield sees the real problem being
the lack of a manufacturing base, and
that is why Nissan has created two
regional business units in Africa (North
and South), to promote three brands:
Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun. With low
car ownership rates in Africa (Nigeria is
at only 31 vehicles per 1 000 people),
and Nissan’s improved product line-up,
this presents “a massive opportunity”.
to become the first OEM to build cars in
Nigeria.
Whitfield says that Nissan is to concentrate
on retail network expansion, and admits
that there are still barriers to investment,
chief of which are policy uncertainty,
logistical challenges, and the biggest
problem of all, parallel imports.
With Nigeria’s population at 178 million,
Nigeria will be a key focus, and thus
Nissan is partnering with the Stallion
Group to assemble vehicles in Nigeria,
and with the assistance of the Nigeria
Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) aims
He says that the grey market is estimated
to be at least ten times the new vehicle
market, and whilst this is a big problem,
it is also an enormous opportunity, as
the current potential for new vehicles is
500 000 per annum, and of course the
latent demand is much bigger. He thus
foresees a bright future in Africa, and with
an improved road network and a better fuel
network, the sky is the limit.
Opportunities in Afri