Director-General, NAC, Mr. Aminu Jalal
The
Director-General, National Automotive Council, Mr. Aminu Jalal, has
said that the vehicle finance scheme that will enable Nigerians to
purchase brand new cars assembled in the country will commence at the
end of April.
Jalal said this when he visited the Nigerian Shippers Council in Lagos.
He said the implementation of the second
phase of the 35 per cent levy collection on imported used vehicles was
being postponed repeatedly because the financing scheme for purchasing
locally assembled vehicles had yet to commence.
“The delay is to ensure that the
financing scheme is properly in place and that the plants fully commence
operations. The financing scheme should have taken off earlier but due
to the Ebola incident and most recently, the elections; it has yet to do
so. Hopefully, we will be able to start with the test run at the end of
April,” he said.
WesBank, a division of FirstRand Bank of
South Africa, had offered a vehicle finance scheme to retail and
corporate purchasers of the nation’s locally assembled vehicles.
The bank and NAC had last month in Abuja
sealed a pact to roll out the finance scheme for made-in-Nigeria
vehicles later this year.
Jalal added that the local assembly
plants could also export cars to other countries in the West African
region, adding that the possibility of exporting the locally assembled
vehicles was a major incentive given to the investors by the government.
He said that NAC had already met with the
member countries of the Economic Community of West African States to
find out the conditions for export to the region.
Innoson Motors is said to be exporting vehicles to Ghana.
Jalal also said that 10 new assembly
plants were expected to join the growing number of vehicle assemblers in
the country this year.
Presently, 23 automakers have signed
Memoranda of Understanding with their technical partners to establish
local assembly plants in the country.
“We are expecting 10 new assembly plants
as more Original Equipment Manufacturers have indicated interest.
Volkswagen intends to kick off operations this year, so do Honda and
Kia,” Jalal added.
The Executive Secretary, NSC, Mr. Hassan
Bello, praised NAC for meeting with all stakeholders to ensure the
success of the auto policy.
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