The Nigeria’s automotive was established in the 1950s aimed at producing both passenger vehicles and commercial trucks. This was made possible by likes of Federated Motors Industries, a subsidiary of United Africa Company, and SCOA’s who produces Peugeot 404 and pickup trucks respectively.
Information available at the National Automotive Design and Development Council website, Nigeria currently has 31 licensed car, truck, and bus manufacturers with a combined installed capacity of 205,000 vehicles per year (NADDC).
The majority of the materials used in its production are Steel, aluminium, glass, and polymer (plastics and fibre reinforced composites, rubber and textile fibres).
However, one of the issues the industry faces is that at least 85 % of the components used in the manufacturing process are imported, implying that Nigeria is an assembler rather than a manufacturer.
Armoured vehicle manufacturing is a concentric diversification strategy of the automobile industry as it is an expansion into a segment of the automobile industry.
The need for armoured vehicles to provide greater protection than personal bodyguards has increased more than ever, particularly in countries where security is a major concern, such as Nigeria. A civilian armoured vehicle is specially designed with reinforced structures to protect its occupants from bullets, explosions, and assaults.
What distinguishes civilian armoured vehicles from the traditional military-built armoured vehicles, such as the MRAP, is that it is meant to be stylish and comfortable while preserving the distinctive high-level protective characteristics such as bulletproof glasses and layers of armoured plate, well-protected tyres and several defensive devices.
These Armoured vehicles can be described as game changers in the ongiing campaign against insecurity in all parts of the country. The durablity of these vehicles makes it easy for troops to manuveaur in a dangerous environment as it can protect personnel from mines and other explosives.
As a result of the characteristics of these vehicles, insurgents and other criminal elements have been deciminated and rooted out.
Armoured vehicle manufacturing has a few players in Africa, and one of such players is Proforce, a pioneer in West, East and Central Africa and has been manufacturing armoured vehicles and other defence/ security appendages.
Proforce Limited is a subsidiary of O’la Kleen Holdings. Proforce, also regarded as a Defence solution provider, is Nigeria’s first ever indigenous manufacturing facility for armoured vehicles as well as a wide spectrum of defence solutions since 2008, filling the gap in the industry for armoured vehicles. For over ten years Proforce.
Limited has been a total defense solution provider specializing in armoured vehicles and personal protection. It has exploited its deep technical know-how and diversified into other areas of Defense featuring an extensive portfolio of land, sea and aerial solutions. It arms a variety of vehicles such as Toyota Land Cruiser to Range Rovers.
Its factory in Ode Remo in Ogun state builds Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), while its second factory is in Port Harcourt, with an upcoming one in Abuja and Katsina and with collaboration from the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria.
The facility boasts a production site, staff residence, R&D centre, admin, maintenance, overhaul and repair, and a clinic.
Ade Ogundeyin (CEO) has a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos and is a registered Engineer with COREN. He serves as the group managing director of Ola-Kleen Holdings Limited, a Nigerian conglomerate with operations abroad in Ghana, Liberia, the United States, Kuwait, and China. He has participated in numerous international training and spoken as a guest speaker at several entrepreneurship seminars inside and outside of Nigeria.
The Africa International Business Forum awarded Mr. Ogundeyin with the Africa Industrialist Award at the House of Lords Parliamentarians in the United Kingdom in 2015 (2014 Business Excellence Award). In addition, the Federal Government of Nigeria named him a member of the Nigerian Industrial Policy and Competitiveness Advisory Council (May 30, 2017)
Proforce clientele serves two major segments, which are civilians and parastatals in the Defense industry:
For the civilian armoured vehicles, their clientele cuts across major industries in Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda, and Chad. The major clientele is High-net-worth individuals, VIPs, entertainers, sportsmen, women, and politicians locally and internationally.
Parastatals in the Defense industry- Proforce Limited has over 14 years of experience in the defence industry, working with numerous parastatals such as the Military, the Police force, Nigerian Prisons Services, Air force, the Navy, and banks etc. Some of which are: The central bank of Nigeria, Firstbank, Sterling bank, Polaris Bank, Heritage Bank and other companies such as Nigerian Breweries, Shell, Agip, Lafarge.
Proforce products include a wide variety of defence products such as Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), Armoured Cash-In-Transit Vehicles (CITs), Armoured SUVs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV-Drones), Armoured Saloons and Sedans, Bulletproof Helmets and Vests, Military Trucks, Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICVs), Armoured Boats and Marine Vessels, Architectural Armouring (safe houses/rooms, e.g., for banks and embassies).
Their products/ vehicles cater to the Military, Police, Security, Cash in Transit, Marine, Body Armour, and Architectural Armouring.
Their services, on the other hand, include installations of ballistic glasses, run-flat tire inserts and the like and manufacturing of ballistic glasses, protective overlaps around door discontinuities and major joints, as well as maintenance repair and overhaul of delaminated or damaged bullet-resistant glass, armour upgrade, refurbishment of accidented vehicles, replacements of damaged run-flat inserts, etc.
The business operates like a typical manufacturing plant which manufactures, sells and engages in after-sales and maintenance. Proforce makes its profit from the sale and after-sales and repair of its armoured vehicles. Proforce financial results are not publicly available.
The competitors of Proforce Limited are foreign-owned but with operations in Nigeria. Lenco armoured trucks, based in Canada, is one example. Lenco manufactures for law enforcement agencies, State Police and Sheriff’s Department SWAT teams in the United States, the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and US Marines, as well as international police forces.
The second company is INKAS Nigeria, which is a civil and customized security automobile manufacturing organization. INKAS, a privately held group of companies, was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. INKAS recently established a presence in Lagos, Nigeria. INKAS Nigeria is a collaboration between the INKAS Group of Companies and Sapid Holdings.
The third company is Texas Armoring Corporation, which designs and manufactures armoured vehicles using lightweight synthetic fibre armour laminates. It was founded in 1993 in Ogden, Utah, and now has a facility in Abuja.
In the month of July 2022, Proforce Limited introduced the PF Fury, PF Viper, a Toyota Land Cruiser with 360-degree armour protection at the Nigerian Army Research and Development (R&D) expo held in Owerri, Imo State. The ultra-light combat vehicle known as the PF Fury was created to meet the needs of the Special Operation Forces and Infantry of the Nigerian Armoured Forces and is tailored to different missions.
Some months prior in April 2022, to further strengthen production, AERACCESS (a French company specializing in the design and manufacture of drones for the security and surveillance markets as well as the civil market), and Proforce Signed an MOU to launch a training centre to establish drone production lines, that is, a “Drone Academy” in Nigeria.
According to the CEO, “When you say Made-in-Nigeria, it means a lot to us as we design our own. Because all these vehicles are patent, we’re industrializing Nigeria; manufacturing is the backbone of any economy and we have provided jobs and been able to show on the international stage that Nigeria and Africa can compete against other countries”.
With an indigenous producing Armoured vehicle plant like PROFORCE, the end of insurgents and criminality is near in Nigeria.