From Atiku Sarki, Abuja
In continuation of the familiarization visit to the local auto assembly plants, the Director General NADDC, Mr Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin visited NORD Motors, Proforce, Mikano Motors , CIG and Simba Group on Tuesday this week being 9th July, 2023.
In a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja indicated that during the tour, the Director General reiterated the Council’s commitment to move the Nigeria auto industry from Semi- Knocked Down (SKD) to Completely- Knocked Down (CKD)production capacity in the nearest future.
“At NADDC, our ambition is to increase the local components of every vehicle that is coming out from the assembly plants. Basically our intention is to move from SKD to CKD in the next three to four years”.
Osanipin said that the facilities have enough capacity in terms of installed capacity and level of operation even beyond the perception of the public.
“The essence of this tour is to establish where we are, what is our reality, where are we in moving from SKD to CKD?. And from what we have seen, we have seen what we need to do, those we need to talk to, and the kind of synergy we need to have with other stakeholders to move ahead” he added.
To achieve CKD production capacity in the auto industry, the DG said ” We need to do backward integration and meet the components manufacturers and start bringing them up, because it is a complete ecosystem and no one can do it alone.”
He however applauded the readiness of the assembly plants to embrace CNG- production as some of the auto makers were already producing either direct CNG- Powered vehicles or converting to CNG.
Responding, the Managing Directors/ CEO’s expressed their profound gratitude for the efforts of the NADDC Chief in propelling the local automotive industry, adding that with proper regulations and consistent enabling environment, the auto manufacturers could achieve CKD in no distant time.
