‘Nigeria spends $4.5 billion on vehicle importation annually’

Nigeria spends about 4.5 billion dollars importing vehicles into the country annually, Managing Director, Omma Automotive company, Chibedu Oguegbu has said

Delivering a paper titled: “Auto policy framework and investment opportunities in Nigeria’s automotive industry” at a one day capacity building programme for members of the House of Representatives Press Corps, Oguegbu said the country has lots of investment opportunities that have not been harnessed.

The training workshop was organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Media and Public Affairs in collaboration with the National Automotive Design and Development Council with the theme “strengthening sectoral policy communication and legislative reporting on Nigeria’s automotive industry development”.

He said policy consistency would, adequate funding of the sector and political stability would help in the development of the industry, especially considering the fact that Nigeria remains the largest market for the automotive industry on the African continent.

According to him, China has become the world’s biggest exporter of automobile, exporting about 30 million vehicles to other parts of that world in 2024, adding that this was the result of over 70 years of consistency in their industrial policy.

He also said that China has also taken over leadership in the production of electric vehicles in the world with a worth of about 231 billion dollars and controlling over 80 percent of the market.

While saying that Nigeria should draw influence from the experience of Morocco, Oguegbu said Morocco today produce about 700,000 vehicles annually worth about 17 billion dollars and today stands as Africa’s leading automobile manufacturers.

He said majority of the items needed for manufacturing vehicles can be sourced within the country there creating a huge employment opportunity for Nigerians.

He said Nigeria has lessons to learn from the experience of China including long term policy consistency, including a ten year policy framework, technology transfer inducing joint ventures with local content and knowledge sharing mandates, leapfrogging opportunities and market leverage taking advantage of the over 200 million population.

Oguegbu said Nigeria’s automotive sector contributes only 0.4% of GDP annually, but has the potential to reach 12% (comparable to oil sector), while localizing 30% production would save about $1.35B for the country and create 150,000 jobs.

He said CNG offers immediate cost savings and environmental benefits with about 60-70% fuel cost reduction for commercial operators, while 40 percent local content can unlock 1.3B consumer market based on the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) which creates continental market access.

He asked the National Assembly to pass the automotive industry bill into law to give legal backing to the National Automotive Industry Development Policy (NAIDP) 2023-2033, establish Automotive Development Fund, provide appropriate funding for their programmes among others.

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