Ford, General Motors weigh options – NADDC
Some automobile manufacturers,
representing US brands in South Africa, have renewed their interest in
setting up auto assembly plants in Nigeria as soon as possible.
American automakers in South Africa, the
hub of automotive imports into sub-Saharan Africa, have at various
times described Nigeria as a market with huge potential that can not be
ignored by any serious industry player. The automakers include Ford and
General Motors.
In a telephone discussion with
BusinessDay, Monday, on the sideline of the ‘Ford Go Further’ event in
Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, some of the automakers said
they were still watching with keen interest, the new Nigerian
government’s pronouncement on the ongoing auto policy initiated by
former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
Only last weekend, the US embassy in
Abuja, through its Counsellor for Economic Affairs, Alan Tousignant,
said the recent visit by President Buhari to the US had triggered off
enquiries from potential investors on Nigeria’s automotive industry.
Tousignant said this when he visited the
director-general of the National Automotive Design and Development
Council (NADDC) last Friday in Abuja.
According to Bello Rasheed, principal
executive officer (information), NADDC, in a statement, Tousignant
visited to make enquiries on the Nigerian Automotive Industry
Development Plan (NAIDP).
Tousignant said he was at the NADDC to
get answers for the deluge of enquiries from the American government and
its business community on Nigeria’s National Automotive Industrial
Development Plan (NAIDP).
Aminu Jalal, NADDC’s director-general,
and Luqman Mamudu, the council’s director of policy and planning,
received and briefed the US team.
The statement said: “ Tousignant said
that there had been an upsurge in the amount of business enquiries from
America since the recent visit of President Buhari to the US.
“He told the NADDC DG that quite a
number of the latest enquiries from potential American investors were on
the Nigeria auto industry.
“Therefore, he needed to know about
applicable staff structure, incentives, availability of skilled
personnel, current total installed capacity, local value addition and
industrial clusters and infrastructure. He also asked questions on
applicable safety standards, annual national vehicle demand, export
potential to other countries, among others.’’
Jalal, while commending the interest
shown by American companies and businessmen in the industry, told his
visitors that two American automobile firms, Ford Motors and General
Motors, had confirmed their interest in starting vehicle assembly
operations in 2016.
The auto policy is intended to transform
Nigeria into a major vehicle-manufacturing hub for leveraging on the
country’s abundant trainable labour force and material resources,
especially the petrochemical-based, he said.
“The NADDC boss told Tousignant and
members of his team that with a population of over 170 million, Nigeria
could not continue to run an import dependent economy,’’ the statement
said.
BusinessDay recalled that the Federal
Government launched the NAIDP in 2014, to limit excessive automobile
imports and promote massive investments in affordable made-in-Nigeria
cars.
On his assumption of office,
stakeholders in the automotive industry had expressed fears that the
President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration would discard the policy,
but he used the US visit to assure investors of his commitment to the
development of the auto industry, and this the South African automakers
had reiterated.
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