South African Automotive Week
Nigeria’s blueprint for a powerful automotive industry in
the centre of Africa – opportunity or threat?
A
minu Jalal, of the National
Automotive Council (NAC) Nigeria,
who is the architect of Nigeria’s
automotive development plans, says that
Nigeria has a similar history to South
Africa, in that in the 1960’s SKD cars were
assembled, and this progressed to CKD
assembly in the 1970’s and 80’s.
But with Nigeria suffering severe economic
problems from the mid 1980’s to the mid
1990’s, and with no policy and no support
from the Nigerian government, this led to
the subsequent decimation of new car
sales, and the influx of used vehicles.
Now, with a growing middle class
clamouring for new vehicles, Nigeria has
decided to revive its automotive industry,
and is following in many respects the
South African model, with a local content
development programme, and plans
for supplier parks, automotive clusters,
and an emphasis on training and skills
CKD programmes. The emphasis will be
on affordable vehicles, vehicle purchase
schemes, and patronage by government
agencies. All these initiatives are having an
effect, with a good response to Nigeria’s
automotive policies, and 23 companies
have already signed agreements. Nigeria
is working on finalising the local content
policy, and the emphasis will be to partner
with all comers, but particularly South
African component manufacturers, for the
mutual benefit of all.
development, using the highly acclaimed
Brazilian template, with an emphasis on
degrees in automotive engineering. All the
necessary building blocks are being put in
place, such as safety and product standards,
homologation guidelines for assemblers,
and the encouragement of local component
manufacture. Nigeria is also clamping
down on smuggling, and has introduced a
duty regime, with assistance for SKD and
Jalal ended with the quote of the day,
maybe the year. He says that the Nigerian
power grid comprises a lot of generators,
with the national grid providing back-up.
This got a good laugh, but a nagging
thought at the back of my mind was that he
could have been describing South Africa in
10 years’ time!
More on the SAAW conference in the
next issue of aBr.
The trade show at SAAW provided an opportunity for the visitors to visit and network, and it also provided the
opportunity for company members to get together.
| words in action
24
december 2014 / January 2015