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….As stakeholders fault auto policy implementation
A senior lecturer at the Covenant University, Otta, Ogun State, Nigeria, Dr. Oscar Odiboh, has faulted the operations of automobile assembly plants in the country. The don, who is also an automotive communication specialist, said they lack the required standard to compete globally. Odiboh stated this on Thursday while speaking as a guest at the monthly industry forum of the Nigeria Auto Journalists Association (NAJA) in Lagos.
Odiboh, who spoke on ‘Implementation of Nigeria’s Auto Policy: The way Forward’, lamented that almost mid-term into the 10 – year Nigeria’s Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) by the Federal Government, most of the assembly plants set up in the country lack the standard to compete globally and can hardly be called assembly plants.
“What we have at the moment are not real assembly plants, they are glorified joineries. Average 65 per cent of our assembly operations are manual, while 70 per cent of employees are casual, ” he said.
He noted that players in the sector were frustrated through stringent importation rules, adding that more than 60 per cent of tools being used in the sector is manual. While calling for the production of budget cars for Nigerians, Odiboh noted that the sector’s inability to offer affordable vehicles for the mass market would keep used cars market growing to the detriment of the sector. He said lack of patronage threatens the survival of the sector as brand new vehicles remained unaffordable to the average middle class Nigerian.
While calling on the Federal Government to provide a finance scheme that would enable Nigerians acquire brand new vehicles, he warned that the projected objectives of the auto policy may remain elusive unless there is market for brand new cars.
He listed poor power supply, bad roads, lack of processed raw materials, lack of long term financial investment and others as bane of the industry, adding that corruption, deceptive data from the stakeholders, profit diversion, mutual suspicion, porous borders as well as poor positioning could eventually run down the policy.
He also expressed worry over the state of the industry, lamenting that the industry may collapse unless government and stakeholders in the sector chart a positive way forward.
Odiboh lamented that economic downturn, uncertainties and government inactions have crippled the growth of the industry despite concerted effort to turn the country to a vehicle manufacturing nation. He warned that the automotive industry in the country is divided and may not thrive unless the stakeholders collaborate.
Odiboh’s views of the industry are coming four years after the introduction of the NAIDP, a policy that has also been roundly criticised by other industry stakeholders.
It would be recalled that the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), the federal government agency saddled with the responsibility of implementing the auto policy, has repeatedly claimed that there are over 50 auto assembly plants in the country, hence alluding to the success of the policy.
A former chairman of the Auto and Allied sectoral group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Oseme Oigiagbe, had earlier lamented the failure of the policy, saying significant achievements have not been recorded since the policy came into effect four years ago.
Oigiagbe, who is an Executive Director of Truck Masters automobile company, stated this when he presented a paper at the 5th Nigeria Transport Awards and Lecture (NTA &L) held recently in Lagos. Explaining that the implementation of the policy has been more of ‘motion without movement’, Oigiagbe lamented that the “Vehicle finance scheme programme with a consortium finance group led by Rank Bank of South Africa would have sparked up consumer demand and ease the vehicle acquisition opportunities,” but is yet to take off.
He also blamed the slow implementation of the policy on poor infrastructure, high interest rates as well as poor regulatory concern. Oigiagbe added that the local component manufacturers seem to be in a dilemma and have not been able to “to rise up to the occasion.”
In his remarks at the forum , President of NAJA, Frank Kintum, stressed the need for a rejig of the policy by the federal government as well as the expression of political will to move the industry forward which, he said, is capable of addressing key challenges in the country, particularly unemployment and industrial development.
Kintum reiterated that the monthly NAJA Forum is a platform to discuss critical industry issues affecting the automotive and road sectors in the country.
