M a r k e t N e w s
AAM intensifies efforts on auto sector development in Africa
Posted on : Thursday, 3rd November 2016
Following a visit to Nigeria to advocate for a robust automotive sector, the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers, that includes Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors, BMW AG and Volkswagen AG, the carmakers led other executives to Kenya to rise an auto-manufacturing attention.
While most the requests the association made to the government of Nigeria are yet to be attended to, the association was optimistic that developing the automotive sector will help Nigeria and other African countries lessen the impact of failing community prices.
Ford sub-Saharan Africa, Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Nemeth, who reiterated that theused vehicle market must be crashed, said: “If we are unequivocally meddlesome in this, afterwards it can’t only be about bringing assemblers in. It’s got to be about bringing in a whole value chain, a whole ecosystem.”
This is coming after players in Nigeria called on government to ban the importation of vehicles through land border to protect investment in the sector, as current economic situation has forced the sector to a somewhat standstill.
According to the association, challenges in the sector embody a volume of alien used cars, a mix of vehicle-financing options and bad highway and ports infrastructure.
Suggesting Nigeria that should only import used cars that are one year or less, and place aloft tariffs on 1- to 5-year-old vehicles, since there are no affordable choices for many Nigerians, used cars would come from vehicles built in a country, he said.
While automakers have started building light vehicles in Nigeria from alien kits, they are still a long way from full-scale manufacturing.
Another barrier for automakers in African markets including Nigeria and Kenya, is a deficiency of permitted car financing, pronounced Whitfield, who is also a clamp authority of AAAM.
In terms of financing, expectations are high that banking handling permit will be submitted to an executive bank this week for Wesbank, a Johannesburg vehicle financing bank, provide about N23 billion for the purchase of brand new vehicles in Nigeria.
Director, Process and Formulation, National Automotive Design and Development Council, Luqman Mamudu, told Autonews that the legislature is also in talks with automobile member manufacturers including Robert Bosch GmbH of Germany, China’s Miracle Automation Engineering Co. and attention groups in India and South Africa.
Source : guardian.ng
