The National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) has launched Nigeria into global recognition in the automotive industry. Nigerian youths are being trained in different aspects of vehicle parts production while Nigerian-built vehicles and vehicle parts made in Nigeria are swiftly gaining global respect and patronage. Innovation and international best practices rule in the NADDC.
Financial Risk Future Magazine UK spoke with the auto icon driving this revolution in Nigeria’s automotive industry, Mr. Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, the erudite Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the NADDC.
What are the NADDC’s current priorities and initiatives to promote the development of the Nigerian automotive industry?
Local Component Development. A vehicle is made up of different parts. You can even decide not to produce vehicles and produce components. We are focusing on vehicle as well as components. We can assembly vehicles and we are currently doing that with very low local components. We are growing the local components and we are making efforts to generate employment. That will also help to increase economic activities within the system.
For instance, if we assemble a vehicle and sell and probably we use twenty staff. But if you produce tyre alone, it means we will go back and produce the material we are going to use. You get rubber, farmers are working, fertilizer sellers are working, labourers to clear the farm are available, and harvesters are going to work. Blacksmiths that will produce cutlass to cut the rubber are going to work.
Logistics and transporters to move the rubber from the village to the factory and sellers will also work to earn money. Only the rubber alone has generated several employments for people. Before it gets to the buyer, it has undergone a chain of activities. Those who offload it will also work. Restaurants will also work because those working must have to buy food to feed. This will create several thousand jobs more than producing a vehicle. Our priority is to see how we can create jobs.
We have gone ahead to identify those who have the capacity to produce things. We are working with them and supporting them financially and technically. We have taken it from the low end so we can start growing it. We have also identified those who can do plastic work, upholstery and others. By the third quarter of the year, we will be able to support them with some policies. By then, they would have started the productions. These are our priorities.
Another priority is skill acquisition. We noticed a lot of skill gap and we decided that the gap must be filled. The only way we can do that is by training and introducing some modern ways of doing things in order to acquire the needed skills. We do training for Artisans, Technicians and others. We don’t just do training, we also come up with curriculum; home-made curriculum. We develop the curriculum by partnering with technicians, assemblers, University lecturers and professionals. We have about Seventeen (17) Stakeholders that come together to execute this project. The Nigerian Automotive Teacher Association is highly involved. All of them come together to map out plans on how to run the curriculum effectively. We ultimately ensure that they are well trained to be effective in the society and nation at large.
How does the NADDC collaborate with International partners to enhance the competitiveness of Nigerian automotive manufacturers?
When collaborating with technical partners, we review them and make sure that they are competent and are productive. We make sure that those who will avail themselves are professionals. This is the first part of collaboration. We have other aspects of collaboration. One of them is “Tripple A.M”. This is an Association of African Auto Manufacturers in Africa with headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa. We all compare notes. The major vehicle manufacturer are members such as Toyota, Honda, BMW and Mercedes amongst others. These are the major stakeholders. We discuss issues of common interest and make corrections when necessary. We have brought them to Nigeria twice. On the first visit, they met top government officials. They heard from the government officials and the government officials heard from them. We later brought them again the second time. That visit was to see how they can assist us in developing our local components. We informed them about our efforts. They were even surprised about what they saw on ground such as the level of our technological involvement with local components.
We brought them to come and access what we have done, hence we can’t assess ourselves. We need to know where we went wrong and what to do. When they came, we did the assessment together in order to encourage others and for other countries to know “Yes Nigeria can produce this and that”. It was then that we found out that a company in Nigeria has a machine to manufacture plastic components. According to them, they have only seen that machine in South Africa and now in Nigeria. This is the machine that we need to produce the plastic components in a vehicle. That encouraged us to press harder so we can start making such products in Nigeria. We are collaborating with them. We have been to
China and Japan. We are collaborating with Japan on how to enforce standard in vehicle manufacturing. For our product to compete in the International Market it has to meet with the international standard. Based on this, we are collaborating with them by enforcing standard of production to meet with SON standard in Nigeria.
What are the challenges facing the Nigerian automotive industry?
The first challenge is caused by us. Lack of faith in Nigerian products, until we change our orientations and mindset. A vehicle assembled by INNOSON, Lanre Shittu, Kojo Motors are the same vehicles you said you can’t buy, you don’t have faith in them. These are the same vehicles you go and buy in China to bring to Nigeria. This is the number one challenge.
The second challenge: For us to compete internationally we must continue to source our funds. The cost of sourcing of funds in Nigeria is very high. The interest rate from Commercial Banks is above 30%. You can’t compete with someone who is sourcing his funds with 3 to 4% interest rate. Due to this, from the beginning, your cost has already gone up by 25%. This is a very big challenge that we need to deal with. Availability and access to funds is the challenge here.
The issue of infrastructure comes in when we are dealing with New Energy Vehicles. Apart from new energy vehicles, we also face the issues of component manufacturers and assemblers. If we have enough of power we are able to reduce the cost of production.
However we are working tirelessly to overcome these challenges. I need to praise most of our assemblers. They have always found a way to trample some of the challenges. When we brought our partners to Nigeria, the first industry we visited was Dangote industry that manufactures trucks. We discovered that they have constructed a power supply system. They were amazed because they have known Nigeria with power failure. They had to ask the question “How are you powering this”? They were told that the entire system is being powered by CNG. They run the CNG from 7 am to 7 pm daily which is cheaper than diesel. This is a very big improvement with such cheaper means of power. The stakeholders we have within the circle are doing great work.
What strategies is the NDDC implementing to address challenges facing Nigerian automotive industry?
There are a lot of innovations in automotive. Within the last ten years a lot has changed in that industry. Before now, nobody talked about electric vehicle. Now people are already talking about electric vehicles with CNG and the ones powered by water. This shows that innovation in this area is making fast progress with several unprecedented changes. Innovations that you don’t need to touch anything.
You just need to speak to the vehicle and it responds. Now, it has gone to the level that you don’t need dashboard. Everything you need to know is displayed on the windscreen.
How does the NADDC support innovation and entrepreneurship in the automotive sector, particularly among young Nigerians?
As things are changing we must make absolute support. This is where knowledge comes into play. For us to experience this innovations practically, we must bargain for knowledge. This is our responsibility to train and educate more Nigerians on the value chains of each of these things. For example, we have been supporting CNG powered vehicles as Federal Government Policy in order to reduce the cost of transportation across the country. Looking at the transportation system, the major problem is the cost of fuel. We have and we are still training the youths on how to do the conversion to CNG. We have also organized events and programmes where youths across the country gather to learn more about CNG and the conversion. It is a value chain where they are endued with complete knowledge about CNG. The CNG has segments and they are furnished with the rudiments and knowledge about each segment. You can decide on the area you want to invest in the CNG. You can even break down the CNG into smaller units where you can sell. You can even decide to have dump yard. I was even telling some of them that you can develop an App. If you get to a particular area of Gudu for instance and you need to get CNG, you just access it within few minutes. You can even make money from this without selling it. We have a lot of youths we have trained and they are training others. We still have to train more people directly or indirectly.
You can even decide to open a training centre within your capacity to train others. We promote skill acquisition within the society across the nation.
What role does the NADDC play in promoting sustainable transportation solutions and reducing the environmental impact of the automotive industry in Nigeria?
We support the New Energy Vehicles especially the ones that are in line with clean energy. We are more about electric vehicles that have zero emission or CNG that has low emission. These are the vehicles that have low sustainable and affordable means of transportation as it relates to our environment. We have set a department dedicated to vehicle electrification. We have also set up a regulatory department for vehicle electrification in Nigeria. We are engaging professionals in this area and in the coming weeks we are going to rollout another policy guideline concerning the kind of charging stations and charging standards expected in Nigeria. A lot of companies are showing interest in assembling and manufacturing electric vehicles majorly Tricycle and Motorcycle and we are supporting them with license, knowledge and funds. These are to encourage them to work hard and manufacture the best. We are also doing accreditation of workshop for the conversion of Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) powered by PMS or AGO to a high breed or a vehicle that is powered by CNG or PMS. While doing that, we also look at major things. For instance the mechanical aspect, the electrical aspect, digital aspect and calibration. We do this to encourage people and build their confidence. When people find out that we are involved, they have the confidence to go for conversion.
We had to establish a curriculum designed to train technicians, engineers and technologists on how to maintain both CNG and electric vehicles. The next phase is the area of manual which will come from the curriculum. Through the curriculum, people will be trained both at the university level. We have also allowed those who need few weeks or months training to participate. I encourage Nigerians to have faith with Nigeria made vehicles. Don’t despise them. They are in partnership with SON. A major problem is the issue of parts but the parts are available and affordable. We have spoken to the manufacturers to ensure that parts are readily in the retail market in order to encourage Nigerians to buy. This is what we have been able to do amongst others.
