Nigeria’s automotive industry’s growth continues as 10 more auto plants are set to begin operations in the country before the end of this year.
This was made known by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, who held a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, with vehicle manufacturers, dealers and licensed Customs agents.
“From the stakeholders meetings we have held so far, I must say that we are particularly encouraged by the level of interest and enthusiasm being shown towards the new automotive policy by Nigerians and also by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs),” said Aganga.
The new policy was announced on October 3, 2013, with the aim being discouraging the importation of wholly assembled automobile and encouraging local manufacturing. Since the commencement of the implementation of the policy in July 2014, Aganga says expectations have been met and exceeded.
“If anyone had told us that about 22 OEMS would sign into the new auto policy in less than one year of its implementation, we might not have believed it. Currently, we have about four of them that are assembling vehicles in Nigeria. We are expecting another 10 OEMs to start assembling cars in the country before the end of this year,” Aganga added.
He noted that frequent meetings being held with stakeholders in the automotive industry was to ensure that everyone was carried along to ensure the fast-tracking of the implementation of the policy.
The minister said the meeting discussed ways of accelerating the local production of automotive component parts on a product by product basis. It also deliberated on establishing a vehicle financing scheme.
“In this regard, we have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with WesBank, (leading provider of vehicle finance and car insurance solutions in South Africa), to finance the purchase of new cars for Nigerians at a very low interest rate,”Aganga said.
According to him, the South African bank will commence operations very soon. Nigerians who need funds to buy new cars assembled in Nigeria can approach the bank for loans payable within a period of four to five years,” he said.
