Federal Government Approves the Manufacturing of Cars in Nigeria

Nigeria has been described as a bastion of knowledge, intelligence and sagacious men. The country is also blessed with numerous natural resources which if properly annexed and well managed, the country would be soaring in the modern era will great nations. The Asian Tigers cum China by all standards are not as blessed as Nigeria but the leadership quagmire which encourages corruption and siphoning of the collective wealth of the people is destroying the country.

Nigeria has nothing stopping it from being among the renowned in the world in industrialisation and exportation of finished goods as well as technology just like China and Brazil today. During the Civil War (1967-1970), the Biafrans invented different weapons not excluding tanks (Ogbunigwes). Apart from that, late Professor Ayodele Awojobi of the University of Lagos developed the Autonov (a vehicle that can be driven both ways; front and back). All these died naturally because of the myopic form of leadership which is the bane of Nigeria.

NAN reports that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday in Abuja approved the Automotive Industry Development Plan for the development of the nation’s automotive industry. The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, told State House correspondents after the weekly FEC meeting, presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, that the plan was expected to attract investment to the sector.

According to him, a transformed automotive industry will realise its potential as a major driver of economic growth and diversification, job creation, local value addition, and technology acquisition. "The most important discussion which took most of our time was the presentation to Council of a broad policy plan to develop the Nigerian automotive industry.

"This Plan, which is part of the Ministry’s industrial revolution plan that had earlier been approved, is aimed at ensuring increased flow of investment for the development of the automotive industry in Nigeria," he said. He said FEC also approved that henceforth, government would purchase vehicles from the assembly plants in the country "unless it is of specialised nature and National Automotive Council (NAC) has certified that it is not produced in Nigeria."

Maku added that the council approved that the recommendations on the local purchase of vehicles be backed by appropriate legislation to reassure investors that there would be no abrupt change in policy. Commenting on the Automotive Development Policy, the Minister of Trade and Investments, Olusegun Aganga, said it was unfortunate that not less than N550 billion was spent by Nigerians on the importation of vehicles in 2012.

He said that Nigeria spent $4.2 billion (about N664bn) on importation of cars in 2010, and that "car import takes the biggest share of the country's foreign reserves followed by other machinery". He expressed optimism that the success of the policy would mean a gradual end to the importation of fairly used cars to the country.

Also, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Bala Muhammed, said that the council approved the rehabilitation and expansion of the Outer Southern Expressway (OSEX) from Villa roundabout to the OSEX/Ring Road 1(RR1) junction, including five interchanges at N39.8 billion. This is not the first time such a programme will be in place in Nigeria but all died due to the ineptitude of government.

Volkswagen was manufacturing cars in Nigeria earlier before it crumbled due to the high cost. Power is still relatively unstable which is almost the most crucial though the government is making frantic efforts at salvaging the situation. It recently transferred the power to private investors and rose to settle the severance package with the aggrieved PHCN workers.