… says assembly plant workers have become after-sales workers, technicians
Deputy managing director of CFAO Motors, Mr. Kunle Jaiyesimi, has said that the Nigeria automotive sector needs urgent attention to salvage the sector from its current precarious condition.
Jaiyesimi said this while making a presentation at the last 7th edition of the Nigeria Auto Journalists Association (NAJA) training/capacity building workshop which held in Lagos on Friday, 29th July, 2022 with the theme: ‘Accelerating Automobile Industry Recovery Strategy In Post COVID-19 Era.’
According to him, CFAO is not isolated from the catalogue of woes that the local automotive industry is passing through, despite their efforts made so far to build the sector to an enviable position.
Jaiyesimi who is also the chairman of the Auto & Allied sub-Sectoral group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) pointed out that his company has been having the impact of the prevailing economic situation but has decided not to lay off their workers.
To keep the employees, he disclosed that CFAO had since converted their assembly plant to after-sales and not wanting to lay off the in this arm, they were then turned after sales staff so as to continue to keep them.
He therefore urged automotive journalists to do an independent investigation into the workings of assembly plants in the country, so that they can come up with an ascertained report about what is happening in this area.
Picking holes in the Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) which took off in 2013 to revitalise the auto industry, Jaiyesimi noted that the impact has not been felt.
“When the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) came up with the policy, we had it in phases; that is starting with Semi Knocked Down; SKD1, SKD2 and SKD3.
“It was expected that after five years, we would have migrated to Complete Knocked Down (CKD). By 2014, we should have been in CKD but we are still in SKD in 2022.
“Can we even talk of manufacturing tyres today? Tyre manufacturers in Nigeria have migrated to Ghana and I don’t blame them. It is unthinkable that after many years, no headway has been made. Ghana took our auto policy which we gave them and they worked on it.
“Today auto giants like to invest in Ghana instead of Nigeria because of the business friendly environment there. These foreign firms get information from our local operators,” he lamented.
The deputy managing director called for more seriousness about assembling vehicles in Nigeria adding that Ghana has advantage now because with the way things are going, it will come to a point whereby the country will produce and bring its auto products down into the country and that will be the end of the Nigeria Auto industry.
Stressing that the auto industry is very symbolic in a lot of countries, he challenged the media to do more in areas of investigative journalism.
This year’s training programme was sponsored by Weststar Associates, franchisee of Mercedes-Benz brand, Stallion Motors with Nissan, Hyundai, Porsche, MG, Changan and Audi franchise, CFAO Motor, franchise owners of Mitsubishi and Suzuki brands in the country and Toyota Nigeria Limited.
Key facilitators at this year’s training programme included Jaiyesimi, a lecturer at the mass communication department of the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun state, Doctor Oscar Odiboh, and the chief technology officer, Pro-ICE Limited, Kunle Bamidele.
The training event was well attended by stakeholders including the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), NADDC, Weststar Associates, Stallion Motors and CFAO among others.
NAJA with Mike Ochonma as its current chairman is the umbrella body of Nigeria’s motoring journalists which cuts across the print and online publications.
The training workshop is an annual training programme organised to refresh the minds of practicing auto journalists on the trend of auto journalism worldwide.