The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a new 10-year national automotive policy that will span from 2023 to 2033.
The new policy was revealed by Niyi Adebayo, minister of industry, trade and investment, at the FEC meeting on Wednesday, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
According to Adebayo, the new policy will explore how the automotive industry can migrate seamlessly from combustible engines to electric solar-powered engines.
This was also in addition to the FEC’s approval for the implementation of the first-ever Nigeria investment policy 2023-2027.
He said: “The concept was for the country to develop rapidly through industrialisation, and then snowball into a sustainable investment climate to attract the kind of investment we desire.
“We felt that there was a need for us to have an investment quality, which would give confidence and allow people who want to better the country, that confidence to bring their funds into the country, the result of which we put this policy together.
“[The] econd memo which we presented was for the approval of the Nigeria automotive industry development plan 2023 to 2033. This is an improvement on the 2013 automotive industry development plan, which was in place before.
“The whole idea is to bring it up to date with current realities. Also, to put our auto industry on the proper footing, I don’t know if you are aware that we have the capacity today to assemble 400,000 vehicles.
“One thing that happens to the auto industry is that when the assembly or companies move into a country to make that investment, which can be anything between $300 to $400 million for the assembly plant… what happens is that the makers of the components that go into the manufacture of these vehicles also move to that country to set up competent […] factories.”
