By Henry Umoru
ABUJA— Director-General, National Automotive Council, NAC, Mr. Aminu Jalal, disclosed yesterday that the Council had sent a memo to government seeking an approval of a N150 billion intervention fund for the automobile industry.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, yesterday, Jalal said if the proposal in the bill sent to the National Assembly by the Council scales through, the ailing automobile industry in Nigeria would bounce back, adding that a new regime that would ensure that government charging a 70 per cent tariff on imported vehicles was awaiting the approval of government.

The Director-General who spoke through a director in the Council, Mr. Lukman Mahmud, explained that the move was part of plans to encourage local investors to assemble vehicles in Nigeria, adding that there was hope in the automobile sector if the strategies being developed by NAC see the end of the day.

According to him, ”the right hand drive is becoming worrisome. We have approached the Japanese Automotive Appraisal Institute, JAAI.”

“We are developing the consumer automobile purchase fund for people to access loans to buy locally assembled vehicles with zero digit interest rate.

“That is one way of promoting patronage of locally assembled cars. Through this scheme, the citizens would get cheaper cars with good payment scheme, while the industry is encouraged to produce and bounce back.

“The automobile industry has the capacity to employ many people. It is a key driver of the economy.”

Meanwhile, Nigeria, through the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Standards Organization of Nigeria and the National Automotive Council is tackling the recent influx of right hand drive vehicles into the country.

The NAC boss who noted that the Council had begun discussions with relevant regulatory agencies of the countries where these cars come from to stop the trend, stressed that the Council had developed a system for authenticating genuine spare parts and safe Nigerians the problem of using wrong parts for their automobiles.