A maritime lawyer, Emmanuel Nwagbara, has called for the need for the development and promotion of the nation’s automobile industry.
Nwagbara who made the call last week in chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, also lauded the recommendations by the Controller General of Customs, Col Hammed Ali, on the reduction of duties payable on imported vehicles into the country.
He explained that one of the strategies towards ensuring promotion and development in the sector is through the reduction of duties payable on the imported vehicles into the country.
“I don’t think the auto policy should be scrapped, on the contrary we need the auto policy to be promoted and by extension to have automotive industry promoted and developed in Nigeria. We believe that the recommendations of the CG of Customs for the reduction in the tariff chargeable on new cars imported into the country is a step in the right direction, that recommendation is a step in the right direction and in fact this is what you know we have been advocating consistently in the last two years. We need to promote the auto industry in Nigeria and this is the beginning of that program to promote auto industry in Nigeria, we need that kind of reduction to have the auto industry developed in Nigeria. Certainly the automotive industry policy is a good one”
“Like I said, we will continue to advocate for the right environment which includes power and the development of the iron and steel industry in addition to the reduction on the tariff payable on the imported vehicles.
He however said that with over 60% of the Nigerian population who are in the production group, developing automobile companies in Nigeria will be a good market.
Nwagbara, also said that having a good automobile company in Nigeria will create a lot of jobs for its teaming unemployed youths.
“The automobile policy should not be scrapped because development is a continuous one, Nigeria cannot depend perpetually on the importation of vehicles into the country. We are looking at a country of more than 200million people. With more than 60% of the population in the production group, so you need a lot of automobile in Nigeria and an automobile company in Nigeria to produces good cars is a sort of a good market”
“The auto industry will create employment and of course promote other auxiliary industry. For instance , if you have auto industry in Nigeria, it will promote the iron and steel industry and it will also create employment. If we have a thriving auto industry in Nigeria it will also empower Nigerians and grow the economy because we are going to make a lot of exports” he said.
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