FG to Ensure Vehicles Assembled in Nigeria Have 40% Locally Manufactured Parts 

Bennett  Oghifo

The Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council, Joseph Osanipin, has said that for the vehicles assembled in the country to add value to the economy, 40 per cent of their components used must be manufactured in Nigeria.

According to a statement by NADDC, Osanipin stated this at the close of a two-week training organised by NADDC, in Abuja recently, in collaboration with Midas IT Co. of South Korea for auto engineers and software automotive design, specifically on Midas NFX software for automotive design skills.

The director general, who was represented by Director, Directorate of Research Design and Development, Dr. Fidelis Achiv, said,  “We are working to achieve a level whereby we can go back to assembling vehicles that have up to 40 per cent locally manufactured components. We have vehicle assemblies in Nigeria but the assembling that is going on is not adding much value to the economy.

“Vehicles that have been assembled come in completely built, and they just remove the tyres, remove the exhaust system, remove the engine, ship them, come and assemble them here. But we want to transform from that to a level where these vehicles come in unpainted, the welding is done here, some components parts are produced here and the assembly will add more value, and employ more people. We have over 11 million vehicles on our Nigerian roads.

“Of the over 3,000 parts in a vehicle, if we can leverage on producing just 10 that we can beat our chest, that in the whole world, Nigeria produces these 10 components and they are best, the market is going to be huge. Our economy will change.”

Recently, during a tour of assembly plants in Lagos, with the members of House Committee on Industry, House of Representatives, the director general lauded Mikano Motors for manufacturing brake pads.