NADDC DG speaks on transiting from SKD to CKD as he tours more auto plants

NADDC DG speaks on transiting from SKD to CKD as he tours more auto plants

 

Director General of National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Mr. Joseph Osanipin, has visited more automobile plants located in the Lagos axis, where he hinted about moving from Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) to Completely-Knocked Down (CKD) production.

This came after a successful visit to Lanre Shittu Motors on Monday, where he kick-started a one-week long tour of auto assembly plants in Lagos axis.

On Tuesday, the DG and his team including the Director in charge of Policy and Planning, Mr. Sani Musa, visited Mikano Motors, Proforce, Simba, Nord and CIG Motors.

On Wednesday, he visited AutoMaster and Jet System.

The DG restated the council’s commitment to move the Nigeria auto industry from SKD to CKD production capacity as soon as possible.

He said, “At NADDC, our ambition is to increase the local components of every vehicle that is coming out from the assembly plants.

“Basically, our intention is to move from SKD to CKD in the next three to four years.”

According to him, the facilities have enough capacity in terms of installed capacity and level of operation even beyond the perception of the public.

“The essence of this tour is to establish where we are, what is our reality, where are we in moving from SKD to CKD?

“And we have seen what we need to do; those we need to talk to, and the kind of synergy we need to have with other stakeholders to move ahead,” he said.

To achieve CKD production capacity in the auto industry, the DG said, ”We need to do backward integration and meet the components manufacturers and start bringing them up, because it is a complete ecosystem and no one can do it alone.”

He commended the readiness of the assembly plants to embrace CNG- production as some of the automakers were already producing either direct CNG-powered vehicles or converting to CNG.

The managing directors/CEOs of the auto firms expressed their profound gratitude for the efforts of the NADDC DG in propelling the local automotive industry, adding that with proper regulations and consistent enabling environment, the auto manufacturers could achieve CKD in no distant time.