Sub Saharan Africa continues to show outstanding growth - General Motors

The General Motors Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) market has continued to show amazing growth rates during the first four months of the year, reaffirming the company's commitment to expanding their footprint in the region.

The latest figures show that the General Motors SSA region, excluding South Africa, has shown a remarkable 48 percent increase in wholesale vehicle sales, year-on-year, when compared to the first four months of 2011.

"General Motors has committed itself to aggressively grow its business in Sub-Saharan Africa this year and, based on these figures, we are succeeding," said Rita Kavashe, Exports Director for General Motors Sub-Saharan Africa and Managing Director of General Motors East Africa Operations.

The Sub Saharan Africa Left Hand Drive market, which includes countries such as Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Senegal, among others, showed an astronomical 117% growth for the first four months, year on year, while the South East Africa Right Hand Drive markets, which include Mauritius, Zambia and Zimbabwe, among others, showed a modest 10% year on year growth rate.

East Africa, which includes countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, showed a 12% growth in the first four months, compared to 2011.

The top five performing countries, Angola, Kenya, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Zambia, had year on year volume increases varying from 22% to a staggering 180%.

Kavashe said GM would continue to leverage their operations in the region to capitalise on the long term growth opportunities that the region offered.

"Our efforts have been focused on strengthening our logistics and dealer distribution footprint, ensuring that we have the right product portfolio in place and providing enhanced support to our customers," she said.

Kavashe said GM also planned on launching eight new products into the Sub-Saharan Africa markets

during 2012, as the company looked to further grow volumes in the region.