In this post-coronavirus era Nigeria needs an ambitious automobile manufacturing policy that will move her away from selling primary commodities

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Nobody wants crude oil at the moment and the prices of all the primary commodities we export like cocoa and cassava are likely to be in the doldrums for the foreseeable future, so something has to give. Whether we like it or not, manufacturing simply has to become our new cash cow

(2) 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. We need to make a solemn pledge today to at least assemble every passenger car used in the country

(3) Peugeot for instance has just launched a new brand of 504. We should be on the phone to them immediately saying we want this vehicle assembled in Nigeria come what may. Given how popular the 504 has been in Nigeria historically, 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 the car and start-mass producing it at Nnewi

(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 and Aladja steel plants. Get a global giant like say Tata Steel to come in tomorrow and take over the running of both facilities. Without steel, no nation can industrialise

(9) 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. Anything we cannot produce, we do not need!