Volkswagen, car manufacturing company, says it is ready to produce two million made-in-Nigeria cars yearly as soon as the automotive bill is signed into law to curb the dumping of used cars in Nigeria.
Mr Thomas Schaefer, Chairman of the company said in Abuja during a discussion on “Developing the African automotive industry by adopting an African approach’’.
“The market at the moment in Nigeria is not big due to various reasons, total number of cars built in Nigeria is about 10,000 cars which is small.
”Nigeria is good for at least 600,000 to 700,000 cars per annum.
”I personally believe that Nigeria is good for 2,000,000 cars per year, with good government policies and collaboration with the industry this can be achieved, ” he said.
Schaefer said that used cars that are imported into the country prevent any kind of industrialisation.
He said that the industry would invest more than 100 million dollars in its first stage of the project adding that such would provide lot of jobs for Nigerians.
According to him, Nigeria is been recognised an important segment of the African automotive sector, we are also pushing for the passage, into law, of Nigeria’s automotive policy capable of advancing the growth of Africa’s automotive sector.
He advised the government not to allow Nigeria become dumping ground for used cars even though the vehicles are cheap.
Schaefer said that the industry would ensure that 70 per cent of the raw materials are sourced locally.
”You need to localise the raw materials otherwise there will be no cost advantage.
”If you bring in all the materials, the logistics cost will kill the project, Nigeria have lot of raw materials that can be used, ” Schaefer said.
