Nigeria serves as autoparts export hub to other West African countries, says ASPAMDA boss

Nigeria has become an export hub and a very strong force in Africa’s spare parts market, so says President of Auto Spare Parts and Machinery Dealers Association (ASPAMDA), Hon. Ngozi Emechebe.

He however lamented the excruciating effect of the bad economy worsened by the decline in auto spare parts manufacturing plants in the country.

He declared that Nigeria could be a global player in the auto parts production with the right investments in the sector.

The ASPAMDA president spoke at the Lagos Motor Fair/Autoparts Expo held at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island which held from Wednesday to Friday this week.

He said, “We have taken over Angola, Ghana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Senegal and many other markets and ASPAMDA is the place to visit”.

The Chinese government, he said, knows the impact of ASPAMDA to their companies; “so Nigeria should wake up. If we are serious, we will take over the world economy.”
He said Nigeria almost got to a point of assembling cars from spare parts produced locally at a time.
“At Nnewi, there were a lot of auto spare part manufacturing companies then. At a time we were about assembling vehicles before things crumbled but thank God, Innoson Motors is doing it again,“ he said.

The ASPAMDA boss showered encomium on President Bola Tinubu-led administration for making efforts to bring back activities in the sector.
He said, “With the way the country is going now, many companies are gradually starting production in the country again*.

Commending the organizers of the Lagos Motor Show for resilience in sustaining the expo over the years, Hon Ngozi said, “Mr Ifeanyi Agwu, the organiser of this expo deserves a thumb up for bringing spare parts makers from across the world to come and showcase their products to our members and Nigerian customers.”
According to him, before the commencement of the expo some years back, ASPANMDA members used to travel to Europe, Japan, Taiwan and other parts of the world in search of companies to do business with.
“But with the spare parts expo, the various parts makers have been brought to Nigeria under one roof to meet with our members and do thriving business,” he said.
This, he said, had saved his members the cost of flight, hotel accommodation, as well as time and eliminated stress arising from flying the long distance to meet with manufacturers.
He recalled that some years ago, his members used to travel to Taiwan to buy spare parts “but when the business started to flourish, and the products started gaining recognition, Taiwan shut their doors against us and raised the prices of goods which made us to turn to China”.
He prayed that one day, China too should close their doors to Nigeria and force us to develop our own products.
The ASPAMDA boss also appealed to the Federal Government to look into the high taxes and duties being paid by Nigerian businessmen which he said are killing local manufacturers.
He said, “ It is cheaper to import finished products than to produce locally in Nigeria as most of the companies are relocating to neighbouring countries due to unfavourable business conditions like high taxes, duties, energy and other infrastructure”.

Emechebe predicted that Nigeria will take over the world spare parts market in the near future. I pray that “China should close their doors to us so that we can grow” he said.

MIKE OCHONMA
Editor