..:: AUTO REPORT AFRICA ::..
Related Articles
The rejection of the much-touted National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) Bill by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Administration in Nigeria, twice, over a five-year period may throw a whopping N2.5trillion investments by stakeholders into the drain.
Lamenting the failure of the country’s auto policy to work as anticipated, an automotive consultant, Dr. Oscar Odiboh, has warned that about N2.5 trillion stakeholders’ investments may be wasted due to the failure of the government to assent to the Bill.
The Nigerian Government had, in October 2013, announced the concept of NAIDP, in order to stimulate investment in local vehicle production and thereby bolster Nigeria’s economy instead of revenues heading abroad
But Odiboh who lamented a situation whereby two successive governments reject their own Auto Policy Bill insisted that the the federal government should drop the policy completely.
Pointing out that those who have started should be encouraged, Odiboh said government cannot force assembly plants into a reality, saying that they do not need to push a policy before it gets traction.
While speaking on the topic: “Zero Patronage, Zero Tariff and the Redefinition of Patriotism by Nigeria’s Automobile Industry” at the 2019 Nigeria Auto Journalists Association (NAJA) Training Workshop held in Lagos on Friday, Odiboh also noted that the inability of the government to assent to the bill has proven anti-policy agitators right and also put a question mark on the consistency of our patriotism.
The automotive consultant who is also a lecturer at the Convenant University, Ota in Ogun State said “Even stakeholders are not comfortable with the policy and there have been too much ado in doing nothing. Nothing is working”
The don also warned that the government should allow auto assembly plants to evolve.
“Let the industry move on. Revolution is not by force. It starts with evolution. We must evolve to revolve. Let our auto industry evolve, then it can revolve,” he advised.
According to Odiboh, the the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) should restrict itself to design, development of infrastructure and campaigns on patriotic patronage of Made-In-Nigeria vehicles.
Advising the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the university don advised that “Customs should increase tariff on used imported vehicles from 30% to 80%. Reduce tariff on brand new imported vehicles from 70% to 30%. Introduce zero percent tariff on locally CKD assembled vehicles”.
He said that the implications of the 2019 budget which may not ensure Nigerians buy new cars, is that the operating auto assembly plants will witness increase in the 58% drop in sales of 2018.
“Another implications of the budget to the assembly plants is that, it will add to 23,000 job losses of the past 5 years, ” Odiboh said.
Revealing the reality observed in 40 sampled auto assembly plants in Nigeria, according to his research, Odiboh lamented that ” five years cumulative installed capacity is 450,00 vehicles but we have five years cumulative output of 15,000 vehicles”.
According to Odiboh, “Average cumulative annual capacity is 90,000 vehicles but we have an average cumulative annual output of 375 vehicles. Average annual capacity per assembly plant is 2,330 vehicles but we have average annual output per assembly plant of 10 units.”
Odiboh therefore, concluded that it is really difficult to determine how many assembly plants that Nigeria has, as “many are licensed; few are working; some are fatally wounded and others are dead on arrival”.
The NAJA training workshop is an annual training programme organised to refresh the minds of practicing auto journalists on the trend of auto journalism worldwide. Members of the association are motoring journalists that cut across the newspapers, television and online media organisations including bloggers from across the country.
