N1tn spent on vehicle importation in 2012 –NAC

The Director-General, National Automotive
Council, Alhaji Aminu Jalal, said on Tuesday
that the country spent about N1.2tn on the
importation of various brands of vehicles last
year.
He said the vehicles ranged from fairly used
cars, otherwise known as tokunbo, to brand
new cars, excluding tractors and military
vehicles.
Jalal, who led an eight-member Board of the
NAC to the Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria in
Kaduna, noted that the vehicles were
imported by the three tiers of government,
private corporate organisations as well as
individuals.
According to the DG, the breakdown shows
that N550bn worth of vehicles; N500bn spare
parts and N150bn worth of tyres were
brought into the country.
This, he added, had over the years stifled the
economy as the country's vehicle assembly
plants lost patronage.
Jalal said, "I want to tell you that last year
alone, this country spent N550bn on the
importation of cars, buses and trucks. But
that does not include tractors and military
vehicles. Again, we also spent around N500bn
on spare parts. In fact, on tyres alone, we
spent N150bn. And this year, the same trend
is showing.
"This is not good for our country. With the
new policy, we are going to support our car
plants to produce very standard cars at
globally competitive prices. This is going to
greatly add to our local content. For example,
to assemble a car here, you need about 2,500
parts.
"If many cars are produced and sold here,
then it would encourage the local
manufacturing of these parts, creating more
wealth here and driving down the cost of the
vehicles. By the time we start implementing
this policy, you will see a very impressive
positive change in just six months."
The Chairman, NAC, Alhaji Abdulkadir Saleh,
gave an assurance that the new board would
strictly implement the new automobile policy
to ensure that locally assembled vehicles were
patronised.
He said the government had no option than to
fully implement the new policy and ensure
that all tiers of government patronised locally
assembled vehicles.
Saleh added that under the new policy, Toyota
and Nissan would build plants in Nigeria.
Earlier, the Managing Director, PAN, Alhaji
Ibrahim Boyi, had told members of the NAC
Board that the company, with 4,000
permanent workers and producing no fewer
than 90,000 cars in 1985, was now producing
3,000 cars annually with a staff strength of
250.
Boyi argued that with the full implementation
of the New Automotive Policy, the company
would bounce back.
He appealed to members of the Board of NAC
not to relent in the full implementation of the
new auto development plan in order to
protect the current and future investments by
local manufacturing plants in the country.
The PAN managing director also urged the
NAC to support the location of one of the
proposed automotive suppliers parks and
Clusters within the premises of the company
in order to optimise existing resources and
fast track the implementation of the local
content development plans.
Boyi said, "In the mid 1980s and early 1990s,
we were doing very well. In 1985, we
produced 90,000 cars. Government policy was
very favourable then. But after that, the
environment became very bad as all kinds of
vehicles started coming into the country.
"Today, we produce between 25 and 30 cars
only during working days. Our workforce of
4,000 in the 1980s is now 250. We are
hoping that the situation will change because
we have put in every modern facility and
forged the right international technical
partnership to succeed."