Dec 12 2014

The Federal Government has called on the Japanese Government to help in recycling huge and disused vehicular carcass that donned the country's landscape.

 

Speaking at a technical meeting between officials of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and those of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the Development of Automobile Supplier Parks in Nigeria, the Permanent Secretary, Industry, Trade and Investment Ministry, Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, said the ratio of new and used cars in Nigeria is between 5: 95 per cent in favour of used cars.

 

This, he said, is so because used cars are affordable to the average Nigerian which is why the government under its Transformation Agenda developed a holistic auto policy that emphasizes greater local content.

 

"For each new car in Nigeria we have 20 used cars. It is a big market to recycle vehicle in this country which may serve as avenue for employment and skills acquisition as well as opportunity for manufacturers to replace used cars with new one," he said.

 

Abdulkadir said local content development has been part of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), which is the next stage of the Auto policy the Ministry is focusing on in order to create employment and wealth as well as skill acquisitions for Nigerians in the auto sector.

 

He said that the intervention of government of Japan in the sector is welcome and fall within present administration's plan to develop auto industry sector in the country, adding that development of auto clusters in the country is achievable and that the Ministry is ready to work with Japan to provide necessary support and information.

 

He urged the survey team to widen their survey across the country in order to get true picture of data of automobile in the country noting that workshop, after sales service and training of personnel must cut across the six geo-political zones of the country.

 

The leader of the team, Mr. Akihiro Shimomura, said the objective of the survey was to actualize the federal government request on the development of automobile supplier parks in Nigeria and to analyse the current issues on the development of the automotive industry in Nigeria, policy and strategy, institutional framework and progress of the sector as well as sort out political and technical issues on the promotion of domestic production in Nigeria.

 

"JICA decided to conduct a survey to gather information of the automotive sector in Nigeria in response to the request from the Nigerian government" Shimomura said, saying that the team would look at the outline of automotive industry, policy, strategy and plan, standards, development of popular car, supplier parks and clusters in three areas as well as laws and regulations.