After paying a condolence visit to the National Security Adviser (NSA) Nuhu Ribadu over the demise of his brother, the Group Chief Operating Officer of SP Offshore Group, Obafemi Adekunle has announced the company’s plan for a military grade drone manufacturing plant launch with cutting edge technologies, a first of its kind in Nigeria.
The launch, which is scheduled for the third quarter, was announced in a statement by the Group Company Secretary, Ms Mina Park-Okoloko over the secretary.
According to the statement, SPO Group is incorporated with subsidiaries on three continents powered by hedge/private equity funds, focused on investing in or acquiring privately owned companies in the field of defense, IT, financial services, technology, real estate, oil and gas, FMCG, port operations and other sectors, with significant business presence or operations in sub-saharan Africa. the company also specializes in structured lending.
“Our deep local knowledge and broad relationship network, affords us an easy access to capital, proprietary deal flow and key sector insight. SPO primary objective is to achieve attractive returns while maintaining a strong risk management strategy.
“The defense industry in Africa is a strategic and economic asset, and from a socio-economic point of view, the industry contributes significantly to sustaining the military capabilities of African states. It is growing rapidly, with Algeria, Nigeria, and South Africa, already making intra-regional military equipment sales.
“Africa needs a capable defense industry for strategic reasons because of the instability in the continent and the need to be able to protect against the effect of the instability from the Middle East. It is to that that effect that SPO Dynamics Systems was created.
“With a projected production capacity of 1,000 drones monthly, making it the largest drone plant in Africa , the company aims to transform industries like defense, energy, logistics, agriculture , law enforcement agencies like Customs , Immigration, Police etc.
“We are a private defense, military and intelligence contractors. With our various partners across the globe particularly with one of the largest tactical training centers in the world with R & D labs, we provide the following services:
1- Military and Tactical Training
2- Ship boarding Simulators and Security Vessels
3- Air Combats Simulators and Helicopters
4- Threat Assessment and Data Tracking
5- Weapons, Drones and Combat Equipments
6- Port and Airport Security
7- Pipeline Surveillance and Protection.”
The Group CEO said : “The West doesn’t make drones based on Africa’s needs . China , Israel, the United States and others develop and test their drones first for their security issues and decide on the features to commercialise because they do not like to commercialize all their researches and innovations . We now purchase or order these drones to adapt them to our terrain.