FG to begin local production of 10 vehicle spare parts

…trains engineers on spare part designs

The Federal Government, through the National Automotive Design and Development Council, says it has put in place the necessary structures and frameworks to begin the manufacturing of 10 essential vehicle spare parts locally.

The move is expected to help reduce the country’s dependence on spare parts imports which currently gulps $1bn annually.

Joseph Osanipin, Director General, NADDC disclosed this at an event to conclude a two-week intensive training of auto engineers software automotive design on Friday in Abuja.

The training boot camp focused on Midas NFX software for automotive design skills was organized in collaboration with Midas IT Co. of South Korea and trained 15 participants.

Speaking in his address, the Director General represented by Fidelis Achiv, Director, Directorate of Research Design and Development, noted that the council is ready to produce spare parts for over 11 million vehicles plying Nigerian roads.

He also said the council is working to achieve a local assembling component of 40 per cent from less than 1 per cent assembling capacity currently.

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,” he said

Abdul-Lawal Zubair, Managing Director, FAZSAL Nigeria Limited, in his remarks, charged the participants to proffer innovative designs to advance the automotive industry.

He said, “You have not just seen the theory of design but with practical. So with his two other trainings. So as you go along, if you have a plan to work, there are guys out there. He knows how to talk to us. We will solve it for you. There is a reason among all the software for this agency to choose MIDAS NFX.

“Let them be proud of you. They can call you for advanced training. Possibly they can take you to South Korea for training. Don’t just know the software and keep it. Be innovative and give solutions,”

Responding, a participant, Lukman, in his address thanked the National Council for the training opportunity.

“Midas NFX is a software that mainly is all about modelling and analysis. I think that makes sense to you. We were exposed to some software which we will put in to study professional activities. But with the idea of Midas NFX, I observe that Midas is all in one. It is all about modelling and analysis, which makes it outstanding and diverse.

“The knowledge that we gained in this training has widened my level of thinking and reasoning. Midas has taught me how to be creative. All we are interested in is how to be creative in terms of consuming what we produce. We try to produce what we consume as well,”