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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) has called for a legal framework work to back the country’s automotive policy.
The Director General, NADDC, Otunba Joseph Osanipin, who made the call, on Monday, said that a legal backing for Nigeria” automotive policy would have to boost investors confidence.
Osanipin, while speaking at capacity building workshop for members of the members of the House of Representatives Press Corps, in Abuja, noted that unless the policy is backed by a legislation, investors in the industry would remain cautious.
The DG, who explained that the Nigeria Automotive Industry Development Plan, provides direction for the sector, noted long term industrial growth requires legal certainty.
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This is because, according to him, manufacturers considering large scale investment in vehicle assembly and component production need assurance that policy incentives will endure beyond administrative cycles.
According to him, “we have the mandate to regulate automotive industry in Nigeria. We also have the mandate to recommend to government necessary policy that will lead to the development of automotive in Nigeria; based on that we came up with the Nigeria Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP).
“And when we started implementing NAIDP, we realized that we need to go beyond that. You will agree with me that automotive is a capital intensive sector. If you want to set up one vehicle manufacturing company factory, it will run into billions of dollars.
“If we need to do that we need to encourage the investors and give them comfort and one of the comfort they are asking for, is that that plan is not enough;it has to be backed by legislation.”
Furthermore, Osanipin added that the country has made progress in local automotive innovation, including the design and production of tricycles using locally sourced materials and growing capacity in compressed natural gas vehicle assembly.
