Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group has said it is keen to expand business across the African region, especially in the automotive, technology and energy sectors
At the recently concluded World Economic Forum (WEF), Prakash Hinduja, Europe chairman of Hinduja Group, said the company is planning to expand its Ashok Leyland vehicle business across Africa depending on the capacity and demand in each country, while noting the potential Africa holds for Indian companies.
“Hinduja group is expanding into Africa and there have been many meetings here with leaders from African countries, including Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa to explore business opportunities,” he said.
Other sectors where Hinduja is planning to expand include information technology.
The group made a similar pledge at the WEF last year with aview of looking at the public private partnership (PPP) model.
Meanwhile, as part of its Africa expansion plan, the transnational conglomerate, which has interests in the automotive, oil and gas, power and healthcare sectors, has partnered with Stallion Group for a wide range of activities in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. Stallion is already assembling Hinduja’s Ashok Leyland range of buses in Nigeria.
The agreement, which was finalised by GP Hinduja, the group’s co-chairman, and Sunil Vaswani, chairman of the Stallion Group, at the sidelines of the WEF, is timely considering Nigeria’s new automotive policy, which seeks to make new cars affordable to more Nigerians by encouraging the establishment of a local vehicle manufacturing industry. To achieve this, the government recently increased the import duty on used and new cars into the country from 10 per cent to 35 per cent and from 20 per cent to 70 per cent, respectively.
