The Federal Government on Friday said it had suspended the issuance of new licences to automobile companies applying to establish vehicle assembly plants in Nigeria.

This is coming after it had reportedly registered about 35 firms to start the production and assembling of new vehicles and motorcycles in different parts of the country.

A statement by the National Automotive Design and Development Council, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, hinted that the suspension was to enable the council to set up some test centres that would “ensure that the vehicles and components meet international safety and environmental standards.”

The statement, which was signed by the Director-General of the council, Mr. Aminu Jalal, said, “The National Automotive Design and Development Council has accordingly suspended issuing licence to new vehicle assembly plants, except for direct investment by Original Equipment Manufacturers. Applicants in process would not be affected. This is to enable the council to consolidate the vehicle assembly operations and concentrate on developing local content.”

It indicated that the response to the government’s auto policy seeking to encourage the local production and assembling of new vehicles was overwhelming.

The council, it said, needed to urgently put in place the automotive test centres, whose total cost was put at N5bn.

The Federal Government had in introduced the auto policy in September 2013 to discourage the importation of fully built new units and used vehicles with the imposition of 70 per cent of the cost of such vehicles as import tariff. Those bringing in vehicle components for their assembly plants in Nigeria were granted zero import tariff in addition very low tariff on other vehicles being imported.

The council said that the auto policy had entered the local content stage, where emphasis would be shifted to the development of automotive components locally.

And to actualise this, it said, “Sites for automotive supplier parks in excess of 400 square hectares have been acquired across Nigeria and effort is ongoing to acquire more while we are now evaluating tenders by global consulting firms with experience in the establishment of industrial parks.”

The statement said, “The response to the policy so far has exceeded our expectations. The current status of implementation of the policy is that 14 auto firms have commenced assembly plants. They are the VON Nigeria Limited, PAN Nigeria Ltd, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Nigeria Ltd, ANAMMCO Nigeria Ltd, Leyland-Busan Nig Ltd, NTM Nigeria Ltd and Steyr Nigeari Ltd. They have started assembling new products (cars, sport utility vehicles, buses, pick-up trucks) since 2014.

“Nissan, VW, Hyundai, Kia, Honda cars and SUV, Shacman and MAN trucks and Ashok-Leyland buses are now assembled in Nigeria; and 11 new companies, including Century Auto (Toyota), TATA, Coscharis Auto (Ford, Joylong, Dongfeng), Dana Motors (Renault), Globe Motors (Higer), Leventis (Foton-Diamler), Kewalram Chanrai (GM, Mitsubishi) have been given bona-fide manufacturing status and are on track to start assembly operations this year.”

 

Source: Punchng.com

Comments

comments