The
Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday in Abuja approved the
Automotive Industry Development Plan for the development of the nation’s
automotive industry.
The Minister of Information, Mr
Labaran Maku, told State House correspondents after the weekly FEC
meeting, presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, that the plan was
expected to attract investment to the sector.
According to him, a
transformed automotive industry will realise its potential as a major
driver of economic growth and diversification, job creation, local value
addition, and technology acquisition.
“The most important
discussion which took most of our time was the presentation to Council
of a broad policy plan to develop the Nigerian automotive industry.
“This
Plan, which is part of the Ministry’s industrial revolution plan that
had earlier been approved, is aimed at ensuring increased flow of
investment for the development of the automotive industry in Nigeria,“
he said.
He said FEC also approved that henceforth, government
would purchase vehicles from the assembly plants in the country “unless
it is of specialised nature and National Automotive Council (NAC) has
certified that it is not produced in Nigeria.“
Maku added that the
council approved that the recommendations on the local purchase of
vehicles be backed by appropriate legislation to reassure investors that
there would be no abrupt change in policy.
Commenting on the
Automotive Development Policy, the Minister of Trade and Investments, Mr
Olusegun Aganga, said it was unfortunate that not less than N550
billion was spent by Nigerians on the importation of vehicles in 2012.
He
said that Nigeria spent $4.2 billion (about N664bn) on importation of
cars in 2010, and that “car import takes the biggest share of the
country’s foreign reserves followed by other machinery“.
He
expressed optimism that the success of the policy would mean a gradual
end to the importation of fairly used cars to the country.
Also,
the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Sen. Bala Muhammed, said
that the council approved the rehabilitation and expansion of the Outer
Southern Expressway (OSEX) from Villa roundabout to the OSEX/Ring Road
1(RR1) junction, including five interchanges at N39.8 billion.
NAN
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