₦airaland Forum

anonimi:
Many thanks for your well researched inputs on this thread as usual.
I hope our youths realise that the above will not be with university degress mainly. Most of the jobs will require TECHNICAL and VOCATIONAL schools training and real hands-on skills.

That's exactly why I put that there. Technical and vocational education is very important. In 2005 I found an indonesian website that was created to discuss welding jobs in the nigerian oil industry. Indonesians and malaysians were taking advantage of these opportunities, but nigerians say that there are no jobs.

Let me clarify about Peugeot 504. PAN continued making Peugeot 504 in Nigeria, when other countries had stopped producing, it for specific reasons.

The original goal of the 1969 auto conference was to produce a Made In Nigeria car. Bedford had been doing CKD since 1959, but Gowon wanted a completely made in Nigeria car. Peugeot took this challenge very seriously.

They had been increasingly sourcing parts in Nigeria and they kept the public informed about it. So you'd hear announcements like 70% made in Nigeria, 80% made in Nigeria, etc.

You could win a 504 if you hit a hole in one at the Nigerian golf tournament at Ikoyi Club in the 1980s. It was heavily marketed.

Peugeot had a joint venture with the Nigerian Gas Company (a subsidiary of NNPC) to produce a Peugeot 504 that ran on gas (1989). There was a lot of publicity about it, but NGC did not fulfil its part of the obligation (there were no filling stations equipped with gas dispensers).

So this was a thing of pride for PAN. They had built a Made In Nigeria car and they wanted it to go on forever, so they kept re-inventing it. Adding plastic here and there, until they finally stopped making it in 2005. They were still re-modelling the cars in 2008.

atlwireles:
Surprised PAN was operation in 2003. Nobody was buying 504s in 2003, at least not that I know.

Thanks for the Bedford research.

In fact they were making mock up kits (that's styling kits) as recently as 2008.

Ngwakwe:
What is the effect of Bakassi dispute on Peugeot with regards to Nigeria foreign policy?

What the heck does that have to do with the fact that Peugeot was still making 504s in Nigeria up till 2005 and the fact that there was a policy in place that government should only use made in Nigeria cars?

atlwireles:
How many assembly plants were in Nigeria in 1973? I don't know myself, any help will be appreciated.

By 2003, please truthfully tell us the, the physical and technical situation of PAN. Was Pan even doing any assemble or just importing cars, that were resold?

Bedford started production in 1959. The Federal Government started negotiations for the establishment of more automobile plants in 1969 and Peugeot (PAN) started in 1971. VON started around the same time.

In 2003 PAN was still making Peugeot 504. They only stopped in 2005 (you can research it. It was the last plant to stop making Peugeot 504s).

atlwireles:
Why not name the government responsible for the major setback. Yes, tell people Buhari was responsible, with his import license /currency restriction policies. That was the beginning of our manufacturing malaise. 18 months of his closed border and one man show, caused so much damaged it took almost 30 years to fix

How could it have been solely Buhari's government, which was in power for only 20 months, that was responsible for the setback? Was it Buhari that gave contracts to Coscharis to import BMWs for the All Africa Games 2003, rather than PAN? Was it Buhari that imported Volvos for the 1973 All Africa Games? Was it Buhari that instituted SAP? Get real.

Obiagelli:

Thanks for your insights naptu2, but my question is how does this policy ensure we aint going the VON way? These policy gives almost zero import duty to assembly plants/companies (except i am wrong), how will this encourage them to buy locally?
How do we ensure technology transfer?

Is not enough to say they will employ nigerians, many Nigerians have lost their jobs to these policy already. There are many unanswered questions.

True, that's why I mentioned that the 1970s/80s policy failed because it wasn't followed through. Certain things are needed to make it succeed.

1) Demand: The military government decreed in the 1970s that government ministries, departments and agencies should only purchase made in Nigeria cars, but successive governments did not comply with this law. PAN was furious when the Federal Government entered into an agreement with Coscharis to import BMW cars for the All Africa Games. In fact, the first set of people that usually violate this policy are usually top government functionaries, so I'd like to see the President, Vice President, Senate President, etc use made in Nigeria cars as their official cars.

2) A local content policy will definitely be necessary at some point. There were many local companies that supplied parts to PAN, these and similar companies would need to be encouraged the same way that the auto companies were encouraged.

3) Infrastructure: This is key. People often talk about power when they talk about the auto policy, but it's not just about power. Would companies like PAN be forced to move their cars across country on articulated trucks? This is where the rehabilitation of the railways comes in. I would also like to see rail links to other West African countries (particularly the landlocked countries), so that it would be easier to export.

4) And most importantly, we need to train our manpower to take up the opportunities that would be created by this policy.

Obiagelli:
If you bring foreign car parts here to assemble at almost zero import duty, i don't see how that benefits Nigeria and nigerians.

Hiw does foreign part become local cars?

It's a progressive thing. We had a similar policy in the 1970s and 80s (unfortunately, successive governments did not follow through on it). Basically, what you do is:-

1) Encourage car companies to set up plants here. Some will assemble CKD no doubt, but

2) With time, discourage CKD. This was one of the advantages that PAN had over VON. VON usually assembled Completely Knocked Down kits (CKD), while PAN had many indigenous manufacturers that manufactured and supplied them with parts (spark plugs, tyres, mirrors, etc) to the extent that PAN could claim (by the late 1980s) that it made Peugeot 504 cars that were ninety-something percent made in Nigeria. This was why VON suffered more from the implementation of SAP than PAN did.

3) The nigerians that will work in these plants will earn an income and get expertise and income that could enable them to set up on their own in future.