Nigerians need to get it into their collective heads that a country of over 200m people needs to have an automobile manufacturing capacity so must have a car policy that looks like this

By Ayo Akinfe

[1] With an internal market of 200m people and a further 150m consumers across the Ecowas sub-region, Nigeria has a captive automobile market and simply has to exploit this to the maximum

[2] 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 as among other things, it is not sustainable

[3] Peugeot for instance recently launched a new brand of 504. President Tinubu should be on the phone to them saying we want this vehicle assembled in Nigeria come what may. Given how popular the 504 has been in Nigeria historically, he should tell we want the world’s largest 504 assembly plant to be located at that historic Kaduna factory

[4] Volkswagen has stopped producing the iconic Beetle. Innoson Motors should buy the rights to that car and start-mass producing it at Nnewi. Surely, President Tinubu can strike such a deal with Volkswagen. In this picture from March 21 1975, you can see the first locally-assembled Beetle roll off the Volkswagen of Nigeria assembly line in Lagos. We need to replicate this feat 50 years later in 2025

[5] Peugeot and Innoson should enter into an arrangement whereby one manufactures engine blocks for the other. 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 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. Alternatively, we can ask an automobile manufacturer to buy them as a subsidiary. Without steel, no nation can industrialise

[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