The National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) said automotive manufacturing companies in Nigeria made over $1bn investments into the country’s economy in 2019.
Nigeria’s auto industry now has capacity to build at least 408,870 vehicles yearly the Council said.
The Council also disclosed that the companies which include, Peugeot, Honda, Mitsubishi vehicle manufacturers, Innoson, among others created employment for about 4,782 Nigerians.
Jelani Aliyu, Director-General, National Automotive Design and Development (NADDC), revealed this yesterday at the ongoing review of the Nigerian Automotive Policy Bill & Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) in Abuja.
Aliyu also said the NADDC has a N5billion vehicle finance arrangement that would enable Nigerians purchase new cars and repay the loan at agreed terms.
He further explained that Nigerians can now put down 10 per cent of the value of cars they want to buy and spread payments for over five years, adding that this arrangement has been concluded with some selected banks in the country with the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Aliyu urged the stakeholders to come up with recommendations that would be captured in the proposed new NAIDP bill to be forwarded to the national assembly for passage.
While declaring the meeting open, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otumba Niyi Adebayo, explained that as part of efforts on the part of the Federal Government to implement the Nigerian Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (NIRP), the Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) was approved to transform the country’s automotive industry landscape and attract investment into the sector.
Adebayo, who expressed concern that automobiles and automotive components importation into the country gulped about $8 billion, said this would not continue any longer.
He, therefore, urged participants to work as a team and come up with better recommendations that could be put forward as a concrete plan or bill to reverse the present trend.
In his earlier remarks, the chairman of the NADDC board, Senator Osita Izunaso, said the Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) 2014-2024 was designed to ensure growth and sustained development of the auto industry in Nigeria.
According to Izunaso, the plan has five critical elements aimed at addressing various challenges facing the sectors and they include infrastructure development, investment promotion, standards, skills development and market expansion.
He therefore urged the participants to come up with relevant recommendations that could be put together and passed to the National Assembly.
Izunaso said, “This meeting organised by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMIT) in conjunction with the National Automotive Design and Development Council brings together all actors in the Nigerian automotive industry to discuss and review of the efforts put in getting the Auto Policy Bill passed by the 8th National Assembly but couldn’t get Presidential assent due to observed short comings.’’
In his overview presentation, the NADDC director , Policy and Planning, Farouk Umar, disclosed that the twelve thematic areas the proposed amendments to the NAIDP must focus on include, proper definitions for what constitutes Semi Knocked Down (SKD) and Completely Knocked Down (CKD) parts, the positions of all stakeholders that align with the NAIDP development as well as development of a basis for determining local content contribution which would be largely based on value addition and labour fractions among others.
