Nigeria closing in on pilot car recycling plant

Nigeria – Nigeria’s National Automotive Council (NAC) is collaborating with the Japanese government to set up a pilot vehicle recycling plant in the capital Abuja to help tackle the issue of discarded cars.

NAC′s director general Aminu Jalal has told the News Agency of Nigeria: ′At the centre, end-of-life vehicles recovered from the roadside, police stations and auto workshops will be dismantled and segregated for reuse.′ The new facility will double as a car recycling training centre for both NAC staff as well as other relevant government agencies such as the Vehicle Inspection Office.

The project is supported by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and Nigeria′s Federal Capital Territory Administration. The land on which the plant will be built has been identified by Abuja officials while JICA has already provided the funds for the pilot plant feasibility study, Jalal points out.

The next step, he adds, is ′a law to empower the authorities to take away accident and abandoned vehicles on roadsides, police and mechanic workshops or vehicles that do not meet the road-worthiness certification′. While some states have individual car recycling laws, a national regulation would be preferable, he argues.

In its Automotive Industry Development Plan, NAC states: ′Nigeria and Bangladesh are the only countries in the top 10 by population without a developed automotive industry.′ As the world′s seventh most populous nation with a rapidly-growing middle class, its potential vehicle market is around a million vehicles a year – ′more than sufficient to support an automotive industry′.

At full capacity, a Nigerian car industry would have the potential to create 70 000 skilled and semi-skilled jobs along with 210 000 indirect jobs in the SMEs that supply assembly plants, NAC adds. A further 490 000 jobs would also be created within the raw materials supply industries.

For more information, visit: www.nac.org.ng