Governor of Lagos State; Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Left) receiving a gift from Yu Jun, Director International Business, Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC Motors) during visit to the company’s headquarters in Guangzhou, China last week
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) have beckoned on some car manufacturing giants in the world to establish car plants in Nigeria.
The Acting Executive Director of CILT, Mr. Paul Ndibe who said this last week in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos advised that interested companies can be given two years to build and ensure they have established properly in the country.
Ndibe also advised them to open car spare parts manufacturing factories across the seven geopolitical zones in the country, so as to ensure availability of their parts instead of getting the parts in an open market.
“There is nothing stopping us from having a Toyota to even establish here in Nigeria, if any Toyota vehicle should be imported. At the interim it can be spread over two years to enable them built their plans and start here in Nigeria, they can in the meantime open up a spare parts shops in the seven regions in the country where the parts can be sold directly instead of the open market arrangement we have at a fairly good price”
He said that by doing that some of those parts that are being sold in the country will have some local contents adding that it will help to build competence and capacity.
“Now by doing that all those parts sold are expected to have some local content, some parts especially the pipes can be manufactured in Nigeria using our rubber, Toyota can do that. And we start the capacity and competency for that”
Explaining further, Ndibe urged the federal government to borrow a leaf from what is practicable in countries like South Africa.
“Look at South Africa, you cannot import a complete vehicle in South Africa, whatever you want to produce come and couple it there and by that you have various brands of cars in the country because that is their policy”
“So Nigeria can take a model from the country for those who want to establish their brands in the country they should establish their assembly and have a three -year plan to be able to fully establish in the country. Maybe that will push us in collaboration with some companies to ensure that Ajaokuta and other steel companies we have here in the country are functional”
“The capacity of made in Nigeria vehicles can be grown but with some level of expertise, we can attain some high degree of capacity but with some level of encouragement in some areas. We should look at the vehicles we use at mini buses and standard buses, if Innosson is trying to establish in Nigeria, a brand like Toyota should be able to have its assembly plant in Nigerian likewise Nissan and all that”
Ndibe however urged the federal government to consider the axle load and the entire load capacity of tankers in reviewing the automobile policy.
He maintained the policy should ensure that a peg is giving to the number of liters a tanker can carry.
“I will expect an auto policy with the idea of an axile load and the entire load of truck in particular. Take for instance the tankers that carried liquid we have 33,000 liters and some are more than that and that is not useful”
“So, our auto policy should give a peg on the number of liters a tanker can carry so that you will know that they can ply any road. If not a road that have been built to carry a truck with 50,000 liters of diesel which may weigh higher than 50,000 liters of kerosene or what the effect is felt on the road”
“So for a longer lasting road structure and then the efficiency we will be looking at having a uniform maximum truck load of liquid. We didn’t see much of that with the general cargo trucks” he concluded.
