The Federal Government, through the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), has unveiled plans to commence the manufacturing of 10 essential vehicle spare parts.

This initiative aims to establish the necessary infrastructure and frameworks to bolster Nigeria’s automotive industry.

The NADDC Director-General, Joseph Osanipin, represented by the Director of Research, Design, and Development, Fidelis Achiv, disclosed this during the closing ceremony of a two-week training program in Abuja.

The boot camp focused on the use of Midas NFX software for automotive design and was organized in partnership with Midas IT Co. of South Korea. It provided training for 15 participants, equipping them with cutting-edge skills in automotive design.

This strategic move, according to Osanipin, is expected to significantly reduce Nigeria’s reliance on imported spare parts, which currently costs the country over $1 billion annually.

He emphasized that the council is prepared to meet the needs of over 11 million vehicles currently operating on Nigerian roads by producing high-quality, locally manufactured components.

He said, “We are working to achieve a level whereby we can go back to assembling vehicles that have up to 40 per cent locally manufactured components. We have vehicle assemblies in Nigeria but the assembling that is going on is not adding much value to the economy.

“Vehicles that have been assembled come in completely built, and they just remove the tyres, remove the exhaust system, remove the engine, ship them, come and assemble them here.

“But we want to transform from that to a level where these vehicles come in unpainted, the welding is done here, some components parts are produced here and the assembly will add more value, and employ more people.

“We have over 11 million vehicles on our Nigerian roads.

“Of the over 3,000 parts in a vehicle, if we can leverage on producing just 10 that we can beat our chest, that in the whole world, Nigeria produces these 10 components and they are best, the market is going to be huge. Our economy will change.”

“So the essence is to train these engineers to be able to design parts, to be able to produce parts so that we can be self-sufficient in vehicle parts production in Nigeria.” (Saturday Tribune)