Nigeria woos Japan on recycling vehicles

Nigeria is seeking Japanese Government help in recycling huge and disused vehicular carcass that littered the country’s landscape.

Speaking at a technical meeting between officials of Industry, Trade and Investment Ministry and those of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the Development of Automobile Supplier Parks in Nigeria, the Permanent Secretary, Ambassador Abdulkadir Musa, said the ratio of new and used cars in Nigeria is between 5: 95 percent in favour of used cars.

This, he said, is so because used cars are

affordable to the average Nigerian which is why the government under its Transformation Agenda developed a holistic auto policy that emphasizes greater local content.

“For each new car in Nigeria we have 20 used cars. It is a big market to recycle vehicle in this country which may serve as avenue for employment and skills acquisition as well as opportunity for manufacturers to replace used cars with new one”.

Abdilkadir said local content development has been part of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) which is the next stage of the Auto policy the Ministry is focusing on in order to create employment and wealth as well as skill acquisitions for Nigerians in the auto sector.

He said that the intervention of government of Japan in the sector is welcome and fall within present administration’s plan to develop auto industry sector in the country. He added that development of auto clusters in the country is achievable and the Ministry is ready to work with Japan to provide necessary support and information.

He recalled that the NIRP and National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) recently launched by the government were meant to develop skills of Nigerian youths as well as address the skills gap in the country adding that National Automotive Council (NAC) and Industrial Training Fund (ITF) are working with stakeholders to develop curriculum along value chain on automobile for higher institutions in the country.

He urged the survey team to widen their survey across the country in order to get true picture of data of automobile in the country noting that workshop, after sales service and training of personnel must cut across the six geo-political zones of the country.

The leader of the team, Mr. Akihiro Shimomura stated that the objective of the survey was to actualise the federal government request on the development of automobile supplier parks in Nigeria and to analyse the current issues on the development of the automotive industry in Nigeria, policy and strategy, institutional framework and progress of the sector as well as sort out political and technical issues on the promotion of domestic production in Nigeria.

“JICA decided to conduct a survey to gather information of the automotive sector in Nigeria in response to the request from the Nigerian government” Shimomura stressed.

He said the team would look at the outline of automotive industry, policy, strategy and plan, standards, development of popular car, supplier parks and clusters in 3 areas as well as laws and regulations.