The first set of two vehicles to land in Nigeria arrived in 1902. And from the 1960s when private sector enterprises like UAC, Federated Motors Industries and SCOA Motors kick-started the assembling of Completely Knocked Down, (CKD), parts into “locally-made” vehicles, the policy thrust of the government has, at best, been a fudge.
In the early 1970s, in the pursuit of what was said to be the “import substitution policy” of the Federal Government then (a policy that was mouthed to ultimately obliterate the importation of vehicles into the country; which this new automotive policy seems to be echoing), Volkswagen and Peugeot plants were started in Lagos and Kaduna respectively. These two government sponsored CKD assembly plants were followed by the FGN establishing four commercial vehicles’ assembly plants in Ibadan (Leyland), Enugu (Mercesdes-Benz ANAMMCO), Kano (National Trucks Manufacturers) and Bauchi (Steyr Nigeria) in 1976.
Also, agreements were signed in the early 80s for the establishment of five minibus assembly plants (Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Isuzu and Mazda), but just like the previously established plants were going out of business (barring Peugeot in Kaduna and anemic versions of Mercedes-Benz ANAMMCO in Enugu and Steyr in Bauchi) these newly planned plants didn’t commence operations. In 2010, a local entrepreneur, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Ltd. in partnership with a Chinese automaker commissioned Nigeria’s latest automobile assembly plant.
A cursory examination of the failed historic import substitution policy may help us to appreciate the inherent emptiness of the new automotive policy. Before such an ambitious policy can be successful, certain fundamentals must be in place: One, the requisite human capital, with the relevant automotive mechatronics capacity to engage the electronics and computing technologies that define the modern automobiles ought to be in place. This vital condition is presently lacking because of the generational systemic failure of our educational/technical training programme. Nigerian universities and colleges of technology are still using totally obsolete curricula (like carburettor technology that’s been outdated for over two decades) to teach our undergraduates specialising in automotive engineering!
Two, in most countries where vehicles are manufactured, the assembly plants only constitute the zenith of an industrial pyramid of raw materials processors and parts-making industries. The National Automotive Council, the nation’s statutory body that’s laden with regulating activities and standards in the industry has less than 100 registered local automotive parts/products producers/manufacturers (and this includes manufacturers of basic seat covers, seat belts and other primary and less complicated components). And insofar as the import substitution policy of yore failed because these feeder industries were non-existent, it’s almost certain that the present ruse of a policy too will fail, as laudable as it seems on paper.
Three, it’s indeed an irony that unlike most auto making countries where basic electrical components like the air conditioning compressors, alternators, starters, etc, are refurbished locally and re-used in vehicles, the unholy alliance between incessant power outages, dearth of investment funds and almost a total lack of skilled manpower will starve the enunciated policy to the grave of its dead and delusional predecessor-policy.
Is it not paradoxical that the same administration that increased the number of years of automobiles imported to Nigeria from 10 years old to 15 years is the same government that has “reasoned” out this utopic policy? Is this not a major policy somersault? I must state at this juncture that the government’s claim that N550bn was used annually to import vehicles into the country seems a bit tall to me; if one assumes that the average price of imported automobiles (eighty five percent of which are used vehicles) is N2.5m and one divides N550bn with N2.5m one will get a picture of 200 million vehicles annually imported into the country! Something is totally wrong between this outrageous claim and the realistic picture of about 100,000 vehicles averagely imported to this country annually.
As a stakeholder in the Nigerian automotive industry, Mr. President, I hereby implore you to kindly summon a policy review session where some of us can table our suggestions of how to create the industrial eco-system that’ll help articulate the admirable objectives enunciated in the presently presumptuous policy.
Punch
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