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The Federal Government has suspended issuance of licence to new vehicle assembly plants in Nigeria. This was disclosed by Aminu Jalal, the Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), in Abuja on Friday.
Mr. Jalal said the action was to enable the council to consolidate the country’s vehicle assembly operations and concentrate on developing local content.
He explained that the suspension did not apply to investment in original equipment manufacturing (OEM), adding that applicants for OEM license would not be affected.
He said:”The major objective of the National Automotive Industry Development Plan is to bring back completely knocked down (CKD) automotive assembly and develop local content.
“NADDC is investing over N5 billion to establish automotive test centres that will ensure that the vehicles and components meet international safety and environmental standards.
“The response to the policy so far has exceeded our expectations. The current status of implementation of the policy is that 14 existing assembly plants started assembling new products (cars, SUV, buses, pick-up trucks) in 2014.”