FG To Phase Out Tokunbo Cars -

THE Federal Executive Council (FEC)
has approved a new Automotive
Industrial Policy Development Plan
designed to transform the Nigerian
automotive industry by attracting
investment into the sector while
phasing out importation of used
cars.
The council, presided over by
President Goodluck Jonathan at the
Presidential Villa, on Wednesday,
also approved two different
contracts worth about N41billion for
development of engineering
infrastructure in parts of the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT).
The Minister of Information, Labaran
Maku, joined by his Trade and
Investments counterpart, Olusegun
Aganga, told State House
correspondents at the end of the
meeting that the new automotive
policy was to encourage local
manufacture of vehicles.
Speaking on the issue, Aganga
disclosed that in 2012 about $3.4
billion (N550 billion) was spent by
Nigerians importing cars while in
2010, the sum of $4.2 billion (N670
billion) was spent, indicating that car
import takes the biggest share of the
country’s foreign reserves followed
by other machinery.
He said the new policy, when fully
effective, would ensure the creation
of minimum of 700,000 jobs in the
auto industry.
Aganga noted that the high points of
the new policy included the
establishment of three automotive
clusters in Lagos/Ogun; Kaduna/
Kano; and Anambra/Enugu states to
share resources and reduce cost of
investments, as well as the
development and revival of the
petrochemical and metal/steel
sectors and the tyre manufacturing
industry to support the automotive
sector.
He revealed that as a way to provide
adequate local manpower for the
industry, the Industrial Training
Fund (ITF) is working with car-maker,
Cena of Brazil, to open automotive
training centres in Nigeria while two
Nigerian universities have agreed to
commence degree programmes in
auto mechanical engineering.
The minister added that appropriate
tariff regimes to discourage car
imports and encourage local
manufacture will be put in place
while government would continue
taking the lead in patronage of
locally made vehicles.
http://tribune.com.ng/news2013/
index.php/en/news/item/23025

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