New national policy on automobile out soon – Aganga

The Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, on Thursday said the Federal Government would soon unveil a new national automobile policy to help reposition the automotive industry and boost its contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

Aganga said this during a meeting with a delegation from General Motors Limited led by the Chairman, Mr. Larry Ettah.

Ettah was accompanied by the President, sub-Saharan Africa, GML, Mr. Edgar Laurencon.

The meeting was convened to discuss the prospect of GML setting up an automobile plant in Nigeria.

Aganga said the need to have a comprehensive policy for the industry became imperative due to the seriousness that President Goodluck Jonathan attached to the public mass transit scheme.

The scheme, which began shortly after the partial removal of subsidy on petrol in January, according to the government, has led to a 20 per cent reduction in the cost of transportation.

The minister said since the Federal Government had decided to patronise made-in-Nigeria buses for the scheme, it was imperative for it to come up with a holistic policy that would help attract investments into the automobile sector.

This, he noted, would not only serve as a catalyst to growing the sector, but would also help to create more jobs for Nigerians.

He said, “The government has a sector-specific strategy on how it wants to industrialise this country and it is going to be based on where we have comparative and competitive advantage to become a top five in Africa and top 20 globally.”