VON moves to assemble passenger cars 2014

The Senate Committee on Trade headed by Odion Ugbesia has ended a one-day over sight function visit last week to VON Automobile plant along the Lagos-Badagry expressway with a charge on the company to be more proactive and dynamic in order to achieve set goals.

The visit, being the first since the automotive policy was announced, seeks to ascertain whether the plants can justifiably take advantage of the revised policy.

Odion Ugbesia, a senator and chairman, senate committee on trade, who led members of his team on the guarded tour of the plant commended management of VON for its achievement within a relatively short time.

He urged VON to urgently meet the 2014 Spring target for production of passenger cars, as the public eagerly awaits the gains of the auto policy, he said. “I’m glad I came here, and I’ve seen for myself – you can see real effort on the part of private entrepreneurs to actually start something in the area of manufacturing and that is commendable,” Ugbesia remarked.

VON Automobiles and other local vehicle assemblers have lately come under severe criticisms from a group of vehicle importers who are opposed to the automotive policy which favours local assemblage against importation of fully built units (FBU).

While calling on Stallion Group to speed up activity at the plant to roll out passenger cars for the benefit of the motoring public, he said: “We are tired of bringing in tokunbo – and now we are seeing some efforts on the part of Stallion to do something that will transmit into manufacturing of cars in Nigeria. And I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen.”

According to him, “the only way the national assembly can support vehicle plants in the country is through legislative support by way of reviewing existing laws and providing enabling environment that would encourage investors.”

Reacting to critics of the new policy, Ugbesia said: “I am sure those in protest haven’t read or studied the policy. You must allow any policy time to grow. No policy ever pleases everybody. Most new policies please some people and of course, offend others and there is nothing you can do about that.”

He encouraged the plant to be dynamic and proactive, adding that patronage of locally assembled vehicles is subject to the principle of supply and demand, and the country still hasn’t have enough plants that could produce its vehicular needs, until all the plants are able to produce in their respective installed capacity.

“Let us face fact; we don’t have that capacity that can meet the demand of our huge market. What they are doing here is infinitesimal considering the huge market, so we haven’t reached that stage yet.”

Tokunbo Aromolaran, managing director, VON Automobile, who conducted the team round the facility, stated that the company has no prior knowledge of the policy, arguing that it is not illegal for a company to establish import documentation for any amount of goods it desires as all players in the industry were at liberty to do the same within the confine of the laws.

He said: “It wouldn’t make economic sense to import three years stock as alleged by some detractors, haven proposed to start production at rates more conducive than those importing fully built up units.”

He said critics are simply uncomfortable with the long-term vision of VON who had invested in local production eight years ago, when it acquired the moribund VWoN plant that initially brought pains through huge losses traceable to unfriendly and harsh economic conditions.

Similar assemblers that have contended with unfriendly economic policies the VON managing director affirmed, are Peugeot Automobiles Kaduna, National Truck Manufacturers Kano, Styr Industries Bauchi, ANAMMCO Enugu and Innosons Auto Limited Nnewi.

VON Automobile has since aligned with Nissan Motor Corporation and Hyundai Motor Company to assemble four different variants of Nissan and two Hyundai models respectively with a plan to expand the variants to four models subsequently.

Dora Akunyili, former information minister and a director at VON Automobiles said it requires tremendous faith in the future of Nigeria for the company to have invested so much of its resources and called on well-meaning citizens to encourage initiatives aimed at expanding the economy’s productive base to create gainful employment.