The Head of Business at Simba Group of Companies, marketers of leading tricycle vehicle in Africa, Mr. Manish Rohtagi has given more revelations on the activities and contributions of the company to the crusade for job creation in Nigeria.
Investigations by Business Hilights across major cities, rural communities and even very remote settlement in Nigeria showed that Simba group lead products, TVS Tricycle popularly called Keke-Napep and Simba Motorcycles have continued to dominate after Motorcycles as the most visible means of transport.
Key advantages of the transport mode include accessibility to any part of the town, cheapness in purchase and maintenance and limited chances of accidents due to its moderate speed system.
The company has also added supplies of Motorcycles (Okada) brands to its basket of transport solutions to Nigeria as majority of Okada riders attest to the fact that the make remains one of the most rugged and easy to maintain in all weather in Nigeria.
In an interview with Rohtagi in Lagos, he said “One particular need I have observed in Nigeria is of generating employment. Employment is a critical requirement for all Nigerians today, especially the youth, and if you don’t employ them they look for alternate ways to get quick money”.
“So virtually all of the products and services we deal in provide employment opportunities.
He revealed that “Where our impact is most meaningful is in the employment generation that our TVS vehicles create,” saying “There are the riders of the motorcycles and tricycles who earn a daily wage for ferrying passengers to and fro”.
Rohtagi added that apart from riders, there are our dealers, financers and fleet owners who play critical parts in our value chain and ensure that the vehicles are made available to potential owners and investors.
“There are the tens of thousands of mechanics and spare parts dealers who repair and service the vehicles and ensure that they are back ‘on road’ as soon as possible.
The Simba Group business head disclosed that “Apart from providing jobs for Nigerians, we have other ways we have contributed to the wellbeing of Nigerians”.
“We currently have many programmes to support the communities in which we operate.
“Perhaps we are most proud of our Queen Riders program, which promotes women’s empowerment and creates a safe ecosystem for women to enter the business of keke, helping them to purchase their vehicles and providing training in both safe driving and security.
According to him, “We also actively engage with the community through our Health check-up camps, where our vehicle riders are invited for Simba-sponsored personal health-screenings, which has included diabetes screening and eye check-ups, while we service their vehicles, for free.
“In Maiduguri, our TVS King tricycle has been used as an ambulance in the rural areas where no other vehicles can reach.
“So, in essence, we are reaching out to places where we can impact the lives of Nigerian people.
He recalled that “To ensure fair-play and true reflection of talent, we brought on board Nigeria’s dance queen, Kaffy, musician Small Doctor and BBNaija finalist Alex Unusual to judge the performances. The competition ran for about a month, and culminated in a grand finale in Lagos.
It would be recalled that TVS participated fully in supporting the Super Eagles during the FIFA World Cup 2018, as the company was named as the official motorcycle and three-wheeler of the Super Eagles is a great honour, and not only has it enabled us to contribute to the nation’s greatest pastime, but has also enabled us to bring our customers and rider community closer to the action with dedicated fan events during big matches and opportunities to meet with the players.
Beyond that, Simba group recently sponsored a dancing competition called “TVS Confam Naija Dance” with the aim of identifying talents for the country.
Only recently, Simba Group introduced a unique feature in its TVS King Deluxe Keke with an in-built mp3 player.
