Merit Ibe
There are indications that the Federal Government is planning to float a tyre and battery assembly plants to compliment vehicles manufacturing.
According to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, some auto investors have met the minister, Richard Adeniyi Adebayo, at a crucial session to discuss plans to establish a tyre and battery assembling plants in Nigeria in which the minister considers to be a good and viable option to the new country’s new auto plan.
The Federal Government’s new auto policy plan as reliably gathered from the ministry would be a one-stop shop for vehicles assembling in the country with government planning to use the scheme as a citadel for industrialisation and creation of job in line with President Muhammadu Buhari administration policy to provide 100 million jobs for Nigerians in the next 10 years.
The minister explained that the administration decided to lay to rest the six-year National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) following mounting pressure from the members of the organised private sector (OPS) and auto stakeholders for a review of the plan for industrial purposes.
Adebayo also confirmed that President Buhari refused to assent to the auto policy bill passed by the 8th National Assembly following negative feedbacks from the auto stakeholders and private sector on its severe implication on the country’s economy.
Confirming talks with the minister over the plans to establish the plants in the country, the Chief Executive Officer, Monlinux Motors Limited, Sulicatu Shofalansun explained that the automakers at the meeting in Lagos briefed the minister on the plans to bring investors willing to set up a tyre and battery assembling plants in Nigeria to compliment the vehicles manufacturing in order to curb the smuggling of tyres and batteries into the country considered inimical to the economy.
Shofalansun said she has been in Nigerian auto industry for four decades and had already made efforts to bring down South Korean investors to established battery manufacturing plant in Nigeria four years ago but the project was frustrated by Nigerian banks which refused to support it with adequate funding and credit facility despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s approval.