Auto policy to boost tech use in manufacturing sector – NAC

The Director-General of the National Automotive Council, (NAC), Engr. Aminu Ja­lal, has stated that the National Automotive policy will bolster the use of advanced and precise technology in the manufactur­ing sector in the country.

Jalal made the declaration during an interactive session with journalists at the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, in Lagos on Friday.

He further disclosed that the council has been receiving in­quiries from leading automo­bile manufacturing companies from across the globe since the announcement of the new auto policy by the Federal Govern­ment with the aim of setting up plants in Nigeria.

He said: “An automotive in­dustry will create significant good quality employment and wide range of technologically advanced manufacturing op­portunities. This industrial base can then form the foundation of other modern advanced manu­facturing activities such as commercial vehicle production, which will lead to the manufac­turing of agricultural, mining and railway equipment, military hardware and transport.”

The Director-General noted that data from the Nigerian Au­tomotive Manufacturers Asso­ciation (NAMA), the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development show that a total of 400,000 vehicles (300,000 used and 100,000 new) valued at N550 billion (US$3.451 billion) were imported in 2012 alone.

He argued that at full capacity, the Nigerian Automotive indus­try has the potential to create 70,000 skilled and semi-skilled jobs along with 210,000 indirect jobs in SMEs that will supply the assembly plants. 490,000 other jobs would also be created in the raw material supply industries, adding that currently about 2,584 persons are directly em­ployed by the assembly plants.

The NAC boss further stated that manufacture of vehicles would enable the country to ac­quire the technologies of mass production, quality control, lean manufacturing, computer aided design, manufacturing and engi­neering which can develop other sectors of the economy and in­dustrialisation.

Speaking on the Nigerian tyre industry, Jalal blamed radical government policies for their death through drastic reduc­tion of tariff on imported truck tyres from 40 per cent to 10 per cent while keeping tariffs on car tyres the same which made local producers uncompetitive against imports from Asia and Europe.

To this end, he disclosed that a new development plan has in­troduced measures to revive the tyre industry. He also pointed out that the revival of the plants will create over 3,000 direct jobs and save Nigeria N120 billion annually which is currently be­ing used to import tyres into the country.