Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The newly inaugurated National Economic Council (NEC) has supported the move by the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) to begin the mass production of Electric Vehicles (EV) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) powered vehicles in Nigeria.
The Director General (DG) of NADDC, Jelani Aliyu, while speaking at the inaugural NEC meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima on Thursday in Abuja, said that the effort would lessen the effect of fuel subsidy removal in the country.
Aliyu expressed that modalities have already been put in place, especially with regards to the commencement of assembling electric vehicles in the country. He emphasized the need for adequate legislations in order to enable mass production of the vehicles.
The Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, who addressed State House correspondents at the end of the NEC meeting, said that some of the decisions that were taken during the meeting included the need to give legislative support to automotive companies that are doing great things in the country.
In his own words, “the NEC meeting, which was presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima, brainstormed on the possibility of local manufacturing companies, mass-producing vehicles that use CNG as their energy source. A presentation was made by NADDC on the great things that are happening in the automotive industry.
“The presentation revealed that about six states in the country, which comprises of Lagos, Ogun, Anambra, Enugu, Akwa Ibom, Kaduna, and Kano have benefited from the domestic production of vehicles or the assembly of vehicles by indigenous companies operating in Nigeria.”
According to him, the companies include Innoson, Mikano, Dangote Peugeot, Stallion-Hyundai, Honda, Elizade-Toyota, Coscharis-Ford, Kojo Motors, and Jet Systems Motors. He added that currently, about 50,000 jobs have been created as a result of the action of either assembling vehicles or producing them in Nigeria.
The Governor noted that some of the listed companies have gone into the manufacturing or assembling of electric vehicles and vehicles powered by CNG, describing it as “a great feat.” He expressed that the impact of the new initiative is that the pressure on the price of petroleum products, particularly Premium Motor Spirits (PMS) will be reduced the more electric vehicles and CNG-powered vehicles are used.
“It is important to underscore the point that the former president had made a commitment that by 2060, Nigeria would join countries that will eliminate fossil fuel-powered vehicles and move to electric vehicles in pursuit of the net-zero emission that some of the countries in Europe, America, and Asia have signed on to.
“So, if that must happen, then we need to ramp up the production of electric vehicles and CNG vehicles. It is estimated that if we give legislative support to these companies, about a million a jobs from the 50,000 jobs that exist in that industry would be created,” he explained.
Otti further stated that it was suggested that the funding required by most of the vehicle manufacturers and assemblers should be made available to them in order to begin the reduction of the dependence on PMS and other fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
