The Nissan Navara between the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III at the Valley of the Kings outside Luxor in Egypt on Monday. Luxor, the capital city of ancient Egypt, was the first stop in a threestage journey across Egypt for the SA-built vehicle this week. Daring Africa, an eight-country, 8 000km odyssey from Rosslyn to Nissan’s Cairo manufacturing plant, ended in Cairo. Picture: Supplied
Daring Africa, Nissan’s celebration of the South African-built Nissan Navara, completed its eight country 8 000km odyssey at a gala function held at the company’s Cairo factory on Wednesday and proved the potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), said Nissan Africa president Jordi Villa.
Villa, who announced that Egypt is now the latest market for the Rosslyn, Pretoria-manufactured bakkie following the opening of Libya and Algeria late last year, said the Daring Africa expedition had showed how an automotive manufacturer such as Nissan, with its assembly plants in Egypt, Ghana and SA, could benefit motorists on the continent.
“We are continuing to invest in the future and Africa is a key part of that future,” he said.
“We are committed to Africa. It isn’t the biggest market in the world at the moment, but it is the one with the greatest potential.”
The campaign was to showcase the Navara, which was designed to conquer the worst African roads. The vehicles had to meet the most stringent severity tests that the Japanese company has yet applied to any of its models.
Daring Africa had achieved this and so much more, said Villa.
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The journey, he said, had symbolically linked Rosslyn, the company’s African LCV manufacturing hub, with its passenger vehicle assembly plant in Cairo, while highlighting its dealership network on a continent in which it had a legacy of more than 60 years.
Nissan Africa head of communications Ramy Mohareb said: “I was very privileged to take part in the last leg of Daring Africa in these fantastic vehicles, which made it all the way up Africa without a single mechanical issue.
“As was the case in the first leg of the expedition from Rosslyn to Mbombela, when two members of staff were selected to accompany the media, two staff from Rosslyn won a trip to Egypt to join up with two of the Nissan Egypt plant staff.
“They then journeyed from the ancient Egyptian capital of Luxor on the banks of the Nile to El Gouna on the shores of the Red Sea, Egypt’s Riviera, before heading inland to Cairo and the finale.
“We set out to dare in a vehicle that is a passport to dare,” Mohareb said, “and in the process celebrate a continent that has given us so much and yet offers us so much more as the world’s last automotive frontier”.
For Talama Mantsho, part of Rosslyn’s supply chain management, driving a bakkie made in the factory where he works on Egyptian roads before it had even been launched was thrilling.
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