Nigeria’s federal government needs to put together a National Automobile Committee and give it ambitious targets which look something like this

Ayo Akinfe

[1] We need to put together a consortium in which the federal government has say a 15% stake that will buy the rights to the Beetle from Volkswagen. Between 1945 and 2020, this was the world’s most successful automobile. This consortium led by Innoson Motors, should aim to make Nigeria the world’s largest manufacturer of electric Beetles

[2] German automobile giants Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen must all be encouraged to come and open manufacturing plants in Nigeria. They will be given five year tax holidays and 50-year land leases

[3] This consortium should also manufacture an elite Nigerian Limousine like this unique Peugeot. Every Nigerian governor, minister l, member of the National Assembly, traditional monarch, etc must be compelled by law to drive one

[4] As a people, we need to make a solemn pledge to at least assemble locally every passenger car used in the country. Importing finished cars has got to become a criminal offence

[5] Companies like Peugeot, BMW, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and Volkswagen should enter into an arrangement with Innoson on the manufacture of engine blocks. If for instance, all the engines for Peugeot’s Kaduna assembly plant are manufactured at Innoson’s Nnewi factory, it will drastically reduce costs

[6] Our ministry of trade and industry should start drawing up a list of secondary suppliers who will furnish these plants with components and parts like windscreens, headlamps, dashboards, wipers, tyres, etc. Such manufacturers should get Bank of Industry interest-free loans

[7] We should aim to make Nnewi the Detroit of Nigeria by concentrating as much manufacturing as possible in the city. That will cut production costs drastically. For this to work, we need to build railway lines linking Nnewi with the ports of Port Harcourt and Lagos. Nnewi also needs to be connected to cities like Abuja and Kaduna, so it is reachable by rail within two hours

[8] We have also got to stop playing silly games with the Ajaokuta, Oshogbo and Aladja steel plants. Get a global giant like say Tata Steel to come in tomorrow and take over the running of these facilities. Without steel, no nation can industrialise and we certainly cannot manufacture automobiles unless the sector is fully up and running

[9] We need to build a dedicated automobile power plant at somewhere like Idah on the River Niger. Its power supply will strictly be for the Nigerian automobile industry

[10] Import licences should only be handed out for specialist vehicles like industrial trucks, ambulances, fire engines, etc. All standard passenger vehicles must be assembled locally. We need to adopt the South Korean slogan: “Anything we cannot produce, we do not need!

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com