AFEEZ Salaudeen, Service Manager of SANY Nigeria Limited, a leading Chinese heavy equipment manufacturing company spoke to our correspondent on the operations of the World’s largest producer of concrete machinery in Nigeria.
Q: May we meet you?
Mr Afeez: My name is Afeez Saluadeen. I have been in this company since 2012. I was employed as an equipment trainee.
Q. Briefly tell us about SANY
Mr Afeez: Sany is one of the largest construction machinery companies in China and third globally. It was established in 1989 and has almost 90,000 employees globally. SANY has been in Nigeria since the year 2000. The company is also located in other West African countries with Nigeria serving as Head Office for the region.
Q. How will you describe your work experience and growth profile ever since you joined this firm?
Mr Afeez: As I said earlier, I have been an operator of SANY equipment. As time went on, I was trained as an engineer. Since then, I have been growing in knowledge.
Q. Can briefly describe the nature of your job?
Mr Afeez: Right now, I am a Mechanical Engineer. We go to different sites to install and fix our clients’ faulty equipment.
Q. Tell us about the acceptability and value of SANY in Nigeria
Mr Afeez: The stock value of Sany’s investment in Nigeria is about $2.3bn. SANY products have been doing very well in Nigeria. In 2019, we made sales of $14.2bn in SANY equipment. This is largely due to the quality, rate and durability of our products compared to others. SANY recently took over from Caterpillar as the global supplier of concrete machinery in the world. Sany is the second largest supplier of excavators in Africa and the leading supplier in America, China and Europe.
Q. Why do you think your product is accepted in Nigeria?
Mr Afeez: The durability of our products allows customers to patronize us more. We have long-term customers that still patronize our latest product model. If our products have not been serving them well, they would have patronized our competitors. They are still doing business with us because of the durability of our products. This year alone, more than 300 units of our products have been sold in Nigeria.
Q. Do you assemble your products in Nigeria?
Mr Afeez: It depends on the kind of machine. Some are assembled in Nigeria while others are coupled abroad. In most cases, When we ship in our equipment, we deliver it directly to the location of our customers and do the coupling there. This is to enable them to have an idea of how it is done so they can do it themselves when we are not available.
Q. What is your staff strength in Nigeria?
Mr Afeez: We have more than 15 staff in Nigeria.
Q. What is your investment plan in Nigeria?
Mr Afeez: Initially, we wanted to have a production plant in Nigeria but the security situation prevented us. We have production lines in other countries but we don’t have any in Africa.
Q. What are the categories of your customers?
Mr Afeez: We have many of them such as CCECC, CGC, RCC, DANTATA and so on.
Q. Is SANY looking towards assisting farmers?
Mr Afeez: We have some farming companies as our customers. Like FedFarm has three of four o our equipment.
Q. How far have you gone in the process of involving Nigerians in the process of building these machines?
Mr Afeez: As I said earlier, our assemblage is done on our customer site. We can only employ more when we have a production line in Nigeria. They initially created a platform that will see Nigerian local engineers take over full control of the maintenance of equipment but the insecurity prevented that from happening.
Q. What are the personal changes and growth you have experienced since joining SANY?
Mr Afeez: I will have to thank SANY immensely. Initially, I was employed as an operator of a concrete point. But I was later taught engineering. I started with training and servicing of equipment before moving into the fixing of equipment. Right now, I have grown emotionally, mentally and physically. Even in the field, I think I a better. They have impacted my life positively.
Q. Apart from you, who else has benefitted from capacity building in SANY?
Mr Afeez: I am not the only local staff that we have. We have several Nigerian drivers and engineers. The company is looking forward to employing more fresh graduates as engineers. This is due to the company’s policy of training employees on how to operate SANY machines.
Q. How do you get along with your Chinese colleagues?
Mr Afeez: Initially I do find it difficult because of communication. Like six years ago, some of our Chinese colleagues could not speak English. But now, all the Chinese here speak English very well so we communicate seamlessly.
Q. Can you speak Chinese very well?
Mr Afeez: I can’t speak Chinese presently but I am looking forward to learning.
Q. Have you been to China?
Mr Afeez: No. Covid-19 prevented me from going to China in 2019. The arrangement was made then.
Q. How is welfare like for Nigerian employees?
Mr Afeez: The welfare package here is very good. We are properly taken care of. We are happy.
