Sunday, November 9, 2014
President Goodluck Jonathan recently flagged off the launch of "Made-in-Nigeria" cars to the admiration of many in the country who believe this move will pave way for the nation's industrialization, though some have been asking whether the cars are really made in the country or assembled locally, writes SEYI GESINDE.
THE year 2014 is a remarkable year for car dealers, automakers and other stakeholders in Nigeria's automobile industry, as it marks the year the country launched its locally made automobiles, thanks to government's automotive policy which encouraged the localisation of vehicles plying Nigerian roads.
This idea as according to the Federal Government's approved National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP), which is meant to encourage local auto manufacturers to produce less expensive models with price range of between N1.2m and N1.5m.
The policy also sets out collaborative options for auto manufacturers, reputable motor dealers, franchise holders and banks to foster all-inclusive domestic dealership network for user-friendly vehicle purchase scheme which could be funded by the National Automotive Council (NAC).
Apart from vehicular production, NAC is also expected to introduce measures to revive the tyre industry. The end result would now be that the revival of auto plants alone, according to NAC's analysis, would create over 3,000 direct jobs and save Nigeria N120 billion annually which is the amount being spent annually to import tyres into the Nigeria.
The policy implementation has already given birth to "Made-in-Nigeria" cars, which were recently launched with a lot of fanfare, most especially new brands unveiled by Stallion Group, whose management also presented President Goodluck Jonathan with a "Made-in-Nigeria" Sporty Utility Vehicle (SUV). Likewise, Kia Motors Nigeria's first indigenous Rio, Cerato and Optima, were unwrapped by the Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mrs Olajumoke Akinjide, at Eagle Square, Abuja.
Before now, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company (IVM) Limited, as a pioneering indigenous auto company, had, in 2009, launched its "Made-in-Nigeria" vehicles at Nnewi in Anambra State, making it part of activities marking the flagging off of the second Nnewi International Auto Trade Fair, by the then Anambra State Governor, Mr Peter Obi.
To ensure increase in its capacity for production of buses, SUVs and setting up of a training centre in Nigeria to boost creativity, which are its main focus, IVM had earlier before products launch, signed an agreement with Chinese auto companies, Gonow Auto Company (GAC) of China and Xiamen Golden Dragon Bus Co. Ltd of China. This is currently yielding results.
Besides that, Stallion Group, which is the biggest automobile conglomerate in Nigeria, in October 2013, kicked-off a process which had today metamorphosed into the launch of its own "Made-in-Nigeria" vehicles. Stallion Group started with Nissan-branded vehicle, but later in April, 2014, it commenced full production of automobile production work at its auto assembly plant in Lagos.
With a business initiative entrenched in long-term partnership, Stallion Group chairman, Mr Sunil Vaswani, believes Nissan will continue to flourish with expansion capacities and in product range, also believing that the assembly plant functioning in full capacity will be able to generate significant employment opportunities for Nigerians and give birth to establishment of several ancillary industries.
"We believe that this is a historic moment in Nigeria's progress towards creating and fostering local industries. It will result in Nigeria becoming the region's leader in automotive industry," Vaswani said.
Just a couple of days ago, Kia Motors Nigeria unveiled its "Made-in-Nigeria" vehicles, which included the Rio, Cerato and Optima, just as the auto company said it delivered to its brand slogan of "The Power to Surprise."
Historically, the journey to achieving the feat had taken the country through many decades. Even, the most recent attempt, which was the presidential approval for the NAC policy, was given on December 30,1992 and later endorsed by the Transitional Council on August 10 1993. That was 21 years ago.
Much more earlier than that, the first attempt to indigenise automobile production in Nigeria was in the early 1960s, when private investors established auto plants in the country. Then, it was the United Africa Company (UAC), which set up the first plants to assemble Peugeot pick-up vans, followed by SCOA Motors plants, where buses and Peugeot pick-ups were assembled.
Speaking with Sunday Tribune on government's past efforts at realising today's dream, a Lagos-based automobile consultant, Mr Manny Philipson, said it was a December 12, 1975 agreement that government signed with privately owned, but foreign auto companies that led to the establishment of four commercial vehicles plants in Nigeria, namely: MB - ANAMMCO in Enugu, Leyland Nigeria in Ibadan, National Trucks Manufacturers in Kano and Styr in Bauchi.
Hence, to Philipson, CEO, Media Advocate Limited, a media consultancy firm cum automotive resource company, "What the present crop of vehicle assemblers are doing isn't entirely different from what UAC and SCOA did in the 1960s, safe that Nigeria ought to have grown beyond semi-knocked down component stage." Hence, government needs to still do a lot to maintain standards for sustained durability.
Then, on the question of what amount of local contents used in the production of "Made-in-Nigeria" vehicles, Philipson said what Nigerians auto freaks needed to know was that "No country in the world manufactures the entire components of a car," so, the issues of whether these newly launched cars are pure Nigeria made or assembled in Nigeria may not hold much water.
"There are over 2,000 components that make up a vehicle and are sourced variously. They are puzzles the layman can't comprehend," the auto expert said.
However, taking a look at vehicular production in developed world, most especially in terms of technology, vehicles on their own reflect the identities of countries where they are made, in that when one sees a particular model, it is easy to identify such with the country where it comes from. For instance, Toyota - Japan; Peugeot - France; Chrysler - America; Mercedes-Benz - Germany; Kia and Hyundai - South Korea.
Hence, on the other hand, taking a cue from these European, American and Asian countries, one can reason that for now, there isn't anything like a Nigerian car, since no particular vehicle has been designed by either local or foreign engineers, which has a brand name either sourced locally or identifiable with Nigeria.
Perhaps, what could have metamorphosed into this idea of a real Nigerian car was a vehicle designed in 1997 by Dr Ezekiel Izuogu, which he named Izuogu Z-600, a prototype introduced as the first indigenous Nigerian car, and the first automobile of indigenous all-African technology, touted by the then Chief of Staff, General Oladipo Diya.
Izuogu, as widely reported then, said his car's prototype was equipped with a self made 1.8L four cylinder engine that got 18mpg, which allowed the car to achieve a top speed of 140 km/h (86 mph). He said a Front Wheel Drive (FWD) was chosen over Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) because a transmission tunnel, which RWD would require, would be more expensive to fabricate and 90 per cent of the car's components, he said, were made locally.
Designed to be priced at $2,000 then, the car was speculated to be the cheapest car in the world, while mass production was planned under Izuogu Motors located in Naze, Imo State, but the car was not passed beyond the prototype stage, reason being too many financial and political hurdles believed to prevent its acceptability.
But in 2005, after the project failed to sail through in Nigeria, the South African government invited Dr Izuogu to South Africa to give a speech on science and technology, after which it showed keen interest in the car and wanted Izuogu to build it in South Africa.
This was in the pipeline, until about a year after, precisely March 11, 2006, when it was reported that armed robbers raided the factory of Izuogu Motors and took with them the molds for the engine blocks and crank shaft, mudguards and other components, which caused a big setback for the project till date.
So, where is the Nigerian car? Or what name is given to the Nigerian car? What is currently happening in Nigeria is seen as foreign manufacturers indigenising their productions in the country, since parts are still being sourced from various parts suppliers, especially from those outside the country and others who either have their factories here or are still foreign-based.
Even at that, a good aspect to this is that assembling vehicles locally, according to Philipson, "allows the license plant to gradually indigenise some of the parts of the vehicle, especially those that can be sourced within the area where the vehicle is assembled.
"Subsequently, the growth of the plant could result in global automobile original equipment manufacturers (OEM) who may decide to establish joint partnership with local car makers. So, it is a matter of time, a fully 'Made-in-Nigeria' car will emerge.
[size=15pt]"Nigeria, like many developing nations, has hoped through import substitution strategy it can develop its plants technologically and achieve 100 per cent local content within 10 years," Philipson said.[/size]
The interpretation of this is that before a country can attain a full height of developing a car locally, building of complex engineering systems requires collaboration and negotiation, which implies that correct decisions are based on customers' needs, functional requirement, design parameters and process variables.
According to Philipson, "There is a difference between fully built up (FBU) and locally assembled vehicles. While the FBU is imported in whole, the other is made here using local manpower.
"The local plant has, no doubt, made an input using her personnel to achieve a goal. In this case, the plant has saved the Federal Government substantial foreign exchange and employed desiring labour. This is indeed a plus which is why we can't but embrace the National Automotive Industry Development Plan.
"This policy is one of the best things ever to happen to Nigeria if sensibly harnessed or how else would one appraise a policy that could save the country more that N1 trillion spent on vehicle importation annually? That is the beauty of vehicle assembly," he declared.
As it is now, the Federal Government has pledged a lot of assistance to auto manufacturing companies in the country with a view to ensuring their optimal functioning. Nigerians can only hope for the best time when all their auto needs will be met locally rather than depend on importation which is just a drain of the nation's purse.
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