Senegal and Mercedes-Benz Partner to Build Trucks
Mercedes-Benz is partnering with Senegal to build a truck assembly plant by 2026. The project is part of Dakar’s wider industrial strategy to create jobs, transfer skills, and position the country as a regional automotive and manufacturing hub.
Bonface Orucho, bird story agency
Mercedes-Benz is betting on Senegal’s push to become an industrial manufacturing hub, committing to build a truck assembly plant by 2026.
The project will begin with vehicles for defence and emergency services, designed to meet West Africa’s growing automotive demand while aligning with continental industrial strategies.
According to experts, the dual-use approach can guarantee early demand and stable off-take, while also building the technical capacity for broader civilian markets.
“Defence and emergency fleets require high durability standards, and meeting those benchmarks early on forces the local industry to build technical depth from the start,” explained Alex Ndiaye, a Dakar-based automotive researcher at the Amadou Hampaté Bâ University.
“That foundation can accelerate the shift into competitive civilian production across the region,” he added in a telephone call.
The facility is being developed under a partnership between Daimler Truck, the Senegalese government, and local partner Global Truck Systems.
According to Daimler Truck, the plant will assemble vehicles from completely knocked-down kits, a model that enables multinational manufacturers to establish production at relatively low cost while transferring skills locally.
For Senegal, the project is framed as part of its broader Plan Sénégal Émergent, the long-term blueprint for industrial and economic transformation.
The government has highlighted the job creation potential, with local press citing “hundreds of direct positions” expected once the facility becomes operational.
While the first production run is earmarked for defence and emergency use, both authorities and Daimler stress that the long-term objective is to expand into logistics, waste management, and other civilian fleet markets.
Ndiaye notes that such dual-use strategies are becoming increasingly common across Africa.
“It is a case of killing two birds, or more, with one stone. Governments get vehicles for urgent needs like defence and emergency response, while industry gains the breathing room to refine skills, test supply chains, and gradually transition into serving wider consumer markets,” he explained.
Morocco, for instance, has developed domestic capacity to manufacture drones through partnerships with Israeli companies, with applications ranging from defence to surveillance and agriculture.
In March, Ethiopia invested in SkyWin Aeronautics, a state-backed factory producing unmanned aerial vehicles that officials say will serve both civilian and security purposes.
In West Africa, Nigeria has been expanding its vehicle production base through the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, which manufactures armoured personnel carriers but has also shifted to producing equipment for civilian use during emergencies.
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South Africa has long been a frontrunner, leveraging its established automotive base. State-owned Denel, for example, produces both armoured vehicles and commercial trucks alongside its aerospace activities, showing how military and civilian production can reinforce each other.
According to Ndiaye, these projects illustrate a broader continental trend in which governments leverage strategic procurement to advance industrial policy.
Defence demand provides the guaranteed contracts needed to launch assembly lines, while the ultimate goal is to use those facilities to generate jobs, technical expertise, and local supply chains.
This strategy dovetails with a regional market that is expanding quickly.
West Africa’s automotive sector is on an upward trajectory, driven by urbanisation, rising disposable incomes, and supportive industrial policies.
In Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics reports that imports of used vehicles reached N1.063 trillion (about US$700 million) in 2023.
According to Africa Business Pages, in the continent’s most populous country, used cars outsell new ones by a ratio of 4:1.
Ghana, meanwhile, has positioned itself as an assembly hub with incentives that have attracted global brands such as Toyota and Volkswagen.
Senegal’s outlook is more subdued. ReportLinker data shows new vehicle registrations will decline from about 5,490 units in 2023 to 5,240 by 2028, a 0.7% annual decrease.
Yet the used car market is growing 8% a year, with Senegal emerging as a centre for spare parts and servicing, according to Senauto Expo.
The country’s automotive market is valued at around US$100 million.
These developments are being complemented by a fresh wave of transport industrialisation.
In July, on the sidelines of the Hangzhou Economic Forum, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko oversaw agreements with Chinese partners, including Yutong and Zhenhuai, to establish an industrial unit for assembling gas-powered and electric buses.
The project aims to renew more than 40,000 vehicles, beginning with 6,000 replacements within five years. Ecofin Agency reports that the initiative will include assembly plants, charging stations, and logistics hubs, laying the foundation for a domestic automotive value chain.
The bus initiative complements the Regional Express Train (TER), Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and Dakar’s planned cable car system, tying it to both urban mobility goals and energy transition commitments.
Alongside the Mercedes-Benz partnership, these projects underline Senegal’s ambition to shift its automotive ecosystem from reliance on imports to domestic assembly, skill development, and eventual value-chain integration.
And Senegal’s ambitions extend well beyond trucks. The country is positioning itself as a regional industrial hub, investing heavily in digital and industrial infrastructure.
In February, the government unveiled a US\$1.7 billion plan to transform Senegal into a digital hub by 2030. The initiative includes new data centres, expanded broadband access, and incentives for tech start-ups.
At the same time, industrial zones are being upgraded with digital systems to improve efficiency.
In partnership with Orange Business, for instance, Senegal is enhancing logistics, utilities, and energy monitoring in its key special economic zones, according to We Are Tech Africa.
A recent analysis by fDi Intelligence noted that Senegal’s industrial strategy has already begun to attract foreign investment across sectors ranging from automotive to technology services.
The Mercedes-Benz facility is a high-profile example of this strategy in action, a global brand tying itself to Senegal’s industrial ascent.
Ndiaye cautions, however, that Senegal’s ambitions’ success will depend on how quickly it can translate CKD assembly into broader supply-chain participation.
“Yet the symbolism of a German automotive giant embedding itself in West Africa is not lost.”
“Historically, Africa has been treated more as a consumer market for finished vehicles than as a partner in production… The Mercedes-Benz plant represents a shift, even if partial, towards embedding production capacity and industrial know-how in the country,” he concluded.
bird story agency
