Ivory Coast builds own buses
The engineering arm of Ivory Coast's national transport firm, Sotra, has locally manufactured three brand new buses in the country. Sotra, imports most of its vehicles from Europe and Asia over decades, but decided to adventure in local production that culminated in their first boat-bus in 2003.
The public has highly lauded the company’s initiative with some saying it would help the country and private individuals cut cost on expensive foreign vehicles.
In 2005, Sotra announced that it was embarking on a “complete bus project” – dubbed building of buses by Ivorians for Ivorians. Our correspondent said the launching of Sotra’s first three buses came as a surprise to many some of whom were successfully transported across Abidjan, the Ivorian capital.