Senator asks Nigerian assemblers to make cars affordable
Ben Murray Bruce, Senator representing Bayelsa East Senatorial district in the Senate has advised local auto assemblers in the country to make vehicles readily affordable to the Nigerian masses.
Bruce who is the chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation gave the piece of advice when he visited Stallion VoN assembly plant this week to witness the presentation of a Hyundai i10 car to Gboyega Alaka of The Nation Newspapers who won the car in a raffle draw conducted inside Stallion VoN assembly plant located along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway Lagos.
The Senator had insisted during his committee’s official visit towards to the company towards the end of last year that the management of the assembly plant should conduct a raffle draw for the media (not motoring journalists) to pick a winner that will drive away a Hyundai i10. The model is the cheapest among the company’s product lines assembled in the country.
He called on local auto assemblers to make their cars affordable to the average working class Nigerian first, insisting that they are the first consideration before even the private sector.
The common sense advocate challenged VON and others to come up with a flexible and affordable payment plan probably of 10 per cent down payment, with the instalment spread over seven years, as is done in America and other competitive markets.
Citing the Hyundai i10, the cheapest car in the Volkswagen range, which sells for N2.6million, Senator Murray-Bruce said it is practically impossible for the average Nigerian worker to come up with the current 25% down payment of N650,000 and a further spread of the balance to be paid at N72,000 monthly over three years.
At 10% down payment, the Senator said a buyer will be required to pay as little as N260,000 and a further spread of the balance in N27,000 monthly instalment (minus interest) to be paid over seven years.
He also asked for a corresponding duration of warranty, adding that when this is done, he will personally lead the campaign to shut the borders against used vehicles to the highest government level.
While congratulating VON and its parent company, Stallion Group on their effort, he urged them to consider switching to energy saving cars in the nearest future.
According to Tokunbo Aromolaran, Managing Director, Stallion VoN Limited, the raffle draw was conducted late last year in which Alaka emerged winner out of other contesters.
Speaking to BusinessDay, Aromolaran explained that when Nigerians buy brand new wholly locally assembled cars, automobile companies like VON, will increase volumes of production and prices per unit will become more affordable.
To underline his point, the MD said the VON plant has the capacity to produce 45,000 units of cars in one shift and 90,000 in two shifts, but revealed that it only produces 4,000 units currently and barely 400,000 per annum.
He said the number of vehicles produced is so small, with the running cost of the establishment coming back on the few vehicles produced. The implication, he stressed, is that cost of production and the prices of the cars shoot up.
He therefore called on the visiting team of visitors, led by its Chairman, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, to come to the aid of local auto manufacturing companies, by shutting the doors against fairly used vehicles.
To further underline the decline in the auto market, he said the demand for cars has systematically dropped from 600,000 in the previous year to 350,000 last year and down to about half of that figure this year.
MIKE OCHONMA AND GODWIN OKAFOR