Nigeria Spent $4.2 bn on Importation OF Cars in 2010-Maku

Abuja – The Federal Executive Council (FEC)
on Wednesday in Abuja approved the
Automotive Industry Development Plan for
the development of the nation’s
automotive industry.

The Minister of Information, Mr Labaran
Maku, told State House correspondents
after the weekly FEC meeting, presided
over by President Goodluck Jonathan, that
the plan was expected to attract
investment to the sector.
According to him, a transformed
automotive industry will realise its
potential as a major driver of economic
growth and diversification, job creation,
local value addition, and technology
acquisition.
“The most important discussion which
took most of our time was the
presentation to Council of a broad policy
plan to develop the Nigerian automotive
industry.
“This Plan, which is part of the Ministry’s
industrial revolution plan that had earlier
been approved, is aimed at ensuring
increased flow of investment for the
development of the automotive industry in
Nigeria,“ he said.
He said FEC also approved that henceforth,
government would purchase vehicles from
the assembly plants in the country “unless
it is of specialised nature and National
Automotive Council (NAC) has certified that
it is not produced in Nigeria.“Maku added that the council approved that
the recommendations on the local
purchase of vehicles be backed by
appropriate legislation to reassure
investors that there would be no abrupt
change in policy.
Commenting on the Automotive
Development Policy, the Minister of Trade
and Investments, Mr Olusegun Aganga, said
it was unfortunate that not less than N550
billion was spent by Nigerians on the
importation of vehicles in 2012.
He said that Nigeria spent $4.2 billion
(about N664bn) on importation of cars in
2010, and that “car import takes the
biggest share of the country’s foreign
reserves followed by other machinery“.He expressed optimism that the success of
the policy would mean a gradual end to the
importation of fairly used cars to the
country.
Also, the Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, Sen. Bala Muhammed, said that
the council approved the rehabilitation and
expansion of the Outer Southern
Expressway (OSEX) from Villa roundabout
to the OSEX/Ring Road 1(RR1) junction,
including five interchanges at N39.8 billion.
(NAN)

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