30th August, 2012
The Director General of the National Automotive Council (NAC) of Nigeria, Engr. Aminu Jalal, recently became the recipient of the prestigious Pillar of the Automobile Industry award at the recently concluded “Nigeria Auto Awards” ceremony in Lagos.
According to the organisers of the award, the conferment of the award is coming on the heels of Engr. Jalal’s distinguished career as an astute professional and administrator, particularly his contributions to the development of the Nigerian automobile industry in the areas of local manpower development, local content development and the need for local industrial parks for the sector.
They pointed out that Engr. Jalal, on the occasion of this event is the sixth recipient of the distinguished award having joined the ranks of previous recipients that include Chief Ade OJo, founder of Elizade Motors and Chairman of Toyota Nigeria Ltd, Chief Okoya-Thomas, the Chairman of the CFAO Group, Dr. Cosmos Maduka, Chairman and Managing Director of Coscharis Motors, Messrs. Leventis and Mandilas who were the founders of Leventis and Mandilas Motors respectively and Dr. Masad Boulos, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of SCOA Motors.
Among the other distinguished winners were Hyundai Elantra that emerged as the Car of the Year for 2011 in a keenly contested race with models like Toyota Avensis, Audi A6, Kia Optima and Land Rover LR3. Toyota won the Brand of the Year award being the most popular brand among consumers in Nigeria and its Hilux also bagged the 1-ton Truck of the Year award while Mack truck got the Truck of the Year award. Michelin won the Tyre of the Year award. Other winners were Sino truck which got the Truck of the Year award and Elizade that picked the Auto Dealer of the Year award for the third consecutive time.