NADDC Engages BMW, Ford, VW, Nissan and other Global Automotive OEMs Towards Local Production in Nigeria

The Director-General of NADDC, Jelani Aliyu, MFR, has led a delegation to South Africa where they met and had discussions with a coalition of a number of the world's major Automotive OEMs, Original Equipment Manufacturers.

The companies included BMW, Nissan, Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota and BAW. Discussions centered on NADDC's committment and strategy on supporting these multi-national companies to come into Nigeria and manufacture their state-of-the art vehicles as per world standards. This would provide direct and indirect employment and exponential economic multiplier effects.

The NADDC delegation included the Director-General, Jelani Aliyu, Director Policy and Planning, Luqman Mamudu, Special Advisor to the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Emeka Ifezulike and Special Advisor to the DG NADDC, Sani Musa.

Ford and Nissan already have production operations in Nigeria. Moving on, NADDC's objective for the two companies is to support them in exponentially increasing their production capacity, and also in providing more of their model range offerings at various price points, from low cost entry levels to premium configurations. Ford produces the Ranger at their plant in Ikeja, Lagos, a mid-size pick-up with high capabilites and functionality.

There are three global mega-trends in the automotive industry: 1) the electrification of vehicles, 2) vehicle autonomy, and 3) ride sharing.

The NADDC discussions with the automotive manufacturers touched on these three trends, especially the electrification of vehicles. With counties such as the United Kingdom and France setting out targets to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel powered vehicles, Nigeria must not be left behind, and NADDC is strategizing the development of an Electric Vehicles Policy to support the adoption of that technology in the country.

Although challenges exist in general power availability in the country, three important enabling factors must be acknowledged: 1) the Nigerian Federal Government has now allowed the establishment of private sector driven modular power generation, 2) Nigeria is blessed with high solar insolation that must be harnessed, and 3) NADDC is now committed to collaborating with developers of automotive relavant sustainable energy solutions from both within Nigeria and without.

The delegation also visited an Automotive Industrial Park in Rosslyn, there in South Africa, in lieu of the proposed NADDC Automotive Industrial Park for Nnewi. NADDC is also proposing two other parks, one in Kaduna and the other in Oshogbo.

NADDC's committment is to work with all credible and progressive stakeholders in enabling the Nigerian automotive sector leapfrog into a comprehensive advanced ecosystem populated with sustainable, energy efficient and inherently safe vehicles and transportation solutions.

This recent NADDC engagement with world leading automotive companies is a solid strategy towards having their most modern models produced and available in Nigeria.