Johannesburg - A delegation from the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers (AAAM) is visiting Nigeria to engage with government and industry leaders in line with its aim to unlock the economic potential and promote the automotive sector across the African continent.
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The delegation is led by Jeff Nemeth, the chairman of AAAM and president and chief executive of the Ford Motor Company for the sub-Saharan Africa region.
The programme is intended to create the framework for policy development to support the growth of the local industry and includes high-level discussions with President Muhammadu Buhari, government ministers and representatives from Nigeria’s National Automotive Design and Development Council and the National Automotive Manufacturers’ Association.
Nemeth said that as the African continent had become increasingly important within the global economy, it was crucial to develop a car sector strategy backed up by incremental investments in infrastructure, skills development and in-market localisation programmes.
“This will make new vehicles more affordable, boost the industrialisation of the economy and lead to the growth of middle income households, which will be the main driver for new vehicle sales,” he said.
The discussions are taking place against the backdrop of Nigeria introducing surcharges on vehicle imports in 2013 and launching a new automotive policy.
Other African countries, including Angola, Algeria and Zimbabwe, subsequently introduced similar surcharges.
Aminu Jalal, the director-general of the Nigerian Automotive Council, confirmed in 2014 that 23 companies had signed commitments with technical partners to assemble vehicles in Nigeria.
The Renault-Nissan alliance and west African conglomerate Stallion Group jointly launched a vehicle assembly in Nigeria in 2013 and indicated that there was potential to develop the plant into a major manufacturing hub for Nissan in Africa.
French vehicle manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen in 2014 started semi-knocked down (SKD) production of the Peugeot 301 in Nigeria with the aim of eventually moving to completely knocked down manufacturing in that country.
Last year, the Ford Motor Company established an SKD assembly operation in Nigeria to assemble the Ranger in partnership with the Ford dealer group, Coscharis Motors, as the first step in a wider plan to grow its manufacturing presence in that country and Volkswagen confirmed it had had an assembly operation in the country.
BUSINESS REPORT