The National Automotive Design and Development Council, NADDC, has said that the Federal Government will soon launch a Vehicle Credit Acquisition Scheme to help Nigerians purchase locally assembled vehicles.
The Director of Policy and Planning in the NADDC, Luqman Mamudu, said this during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos on Wednesday.
He said that a South African company would provide more of the funds for the scheme in conjunction with the African Development Bank, AfDB, while the NADDC would contribute about N7.5 billion interest free fund to the scheme.
Mamudu pointed out that Nigeria had the capacity to produce 384,000 units of vehicles annually but “Unfortunately, the country only produced 25,000 units in 2015.
He added: “We have been in talks with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to also source for funds to support the credit scheme being planned by the Federal Government in conjunction with our council.
“We are also glad to announce that three testing laboratories for locally-assembled vehicles are also in the works and these are not just for motorcars alone, but for tractors and heavy-duty vehicles.
“We have not reached our potentials as a nation for locally-assembled vehicles, but we have the capacity to do so,” Mamudu said.
He added that the NADDC was working on a partnership with the Nigerian Customs Service to stop importation of used cars through the borders.
Aminu Jalal, Director-General of the NADDC, had in June, said that the council was targeting 40 per cent local content development for the automobile sector by 2021.
Jalal said that the mission of the council is to develop capacity of plants in Nigeria to produce the automotive components to achieve this.