
But the vehicles are of the same standard as those produced anywhere around the world. Many Nigerians are still surprise, when you tell them vehicles are made here, they expect to see the vehicles rough and old-fashioned. We have Dangote, Innoson in Nnewi, Lanre Shittu, Elizade, Honda and others who are actively producing vehicles in Nigeria. As at 2019, over N500 billion had been invested by these companies.

“Due to these policies, a lot of companies have connected to the Nigerian automobile industry. And when vehicles are assembled here, they attract zero duty and zero levy. Also we there is only 10 per cent import duty on vehicles parts imported into the country for assembly here. “As result, we are working on 10 years tax holiday for any company that comes up to produce vehicles in the country. “So this administration said something has to be done and the National Automative Design and Development Council got the approval of the Federal Executive Council to implement the National Automative Industry Development Plan, which has five key elements including helping to promote local production, development of infrastructure, development of standard and market development. So, the Peugeot, the Volkswagen had to close down and a lot of those producing vehicles, not because government said, not because the companies left, but because the market had dried up. “Those Nigerians who could buy brand new Peugeot 504 could no longer afford them. Because we were so dependent on crude oil, the price of crude oil dropped from $27 to below $10 and that threw Nigeria into recession.


Then, in 1986, something very bad happened. “Peugeot alone had 40% local contents parts were coming from here in Kaduna, in Lagos, Nnewi and Jos, we were producing over 140,000 vehicles per year here in Nigeria and people were buying them up.
