By Theodore Opara

THE President of Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, NACCIMA, Chief Bassey Edem has called on the Federal Government to introduce policies that would reduce the cost of production in the nation’s automobile industry.

•L-R: Victor Oguamalam, MD, Globe Motors; Mohan Wasnani, GM, Globe Motors; and Ifeanyi Ogbor, Head, Vehicle and Asset Finance, Stanbic IBTC Bank, at the Globe Motors Hyundai and Stanbic IBTC Bank vehicle financing scheme launch in Lagos.

The NACCIMA boss who was represented at the opening of the Lagos Motor Fair at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, by his vice, Asiwaju Solomon K. Onafowokan said that in order to reap the long term benefits of the National Automotive Policy, there must be simultaneous development of road infrastructure, urban renewal and road network planning, improved power generation and supply.

He also urged the government to reduce the interest rates on loans for car purchases as this would improve the aggregate demand of products from the industry and benefit the nation as a whole.

The NACCIMA boss identified the benefits of the federal government auto policy to include knowledge transfer, human capital development, growth in employment, increase in export trade, reduce pressure on foreign exchange and growth of other satellite industries.

Automobile industries

To this end, he commended the federal government’s decision to protect and patronise the local automobile plants by enacting a law to that effect and urged the government to fully implement the law.

“Worthy of mention is an existing law to protect and patronise the existing automobile industries in the country that was gazetted, (No 28 of 1994) which says ‘government at all levels and their agencies, must source all their vehicles from within the country, except where such automobiles are not available locally,” he noted.

The president however cautioned that  “as laudable as this is, it must be complemented with maximum standard requirement design to ensure the competitiveness of automobiles made in Nigeria.”

Commending the decision of the Federal government to have an auto policy for the country, Chief Edem said “with the implementation of the national Automotive Industry Development plan and the establishment of the National Automotive Design and Development Council, the Federal Government signalled its intent to focus on the automobile industry as one of the drivers of economic growth and sustainable development.