
Both the Federal and state governments have been advised to ensure that all the vehicles to be procured as fuel subsidy palliatives are purchased from automobile companies that have dealerships and existence in the country.
Managing Director, BKG Exhibitions Limited, Ifeanyichukwu Agwu, gave this advice while speaking with journalists in Lagos.
Agwu noted that injecting such money for the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses into the Nigerian automotive industry would spur more activities that would fast-track the development of the industry.
“We have companies in Nigeria that could meet up the demand as well as subsequent ones,” he maintained.
He noted that the sector had suffered setbacks for over a decade owing to the poor attention paid to it by the government, especially with the poor implementation of the government-instituted National Automotive Industry Development Policy/Plan (NAIDP), which is in its 10th year of poor implementation.
“No doubt, low sales and lack of clear-cut policy direction, amongst others have been plaguing the industry which makes it to be in dire need of life support, injecting the funds for the purchase of these vehicles will go a long way in restoring life and vibrancy to the industry.
“Procuring these vehicles from sources that are not playing big in the Nigerian market will only end in more capital flight out of the country and worsening the precarious state of the nation’s economy. More jobs will be created in the benefiting economies, while unemployment persists in Nigeria,” he said.
Agwu urged the government to consider using the automotive industry in driving Nigeria’s economic development.
“I urge the new government to ensure that the automotive sector of the Nigerian economy remains on the front burner of its economic policy and programmes from the onset.
“The sector is very important as it shows physically the state of the economy, and it generates much revenue and creates enormous employment. No serious government toys with it. It is a sector that affects virtually everything. If it is not rightly re-positioned now, it will, very shortly, negatively affect a whole lot in the life of the people and economy. Government should therefore parley seriously with the sector’s stakeholders to see how it could be made better.
“Nigeria has the resources and capacity to become the hub of automotive business in the continent and it will be a very big disservice to Nigeria and its people if other African countries do this ahead of Nigeria, especially in West Africa,” Agwu said.
He called on the government to ensure that the sector benefits immensely from the N75 billion it proposed to spend in rejigging the manufacturing sector, saying the automotive sector remains the best-assured sector that will help the government in creating massive employment opportunities in the economy.