From Moses Akaigwe
SAGLEV Electromobility Company Limited, the assembly plant in Imota area of Ikorodu, Lagos, established for the production of electric vehicles, has earned the support of both the Federal Government and the African Development Bank (AfDB).
During recent visits to the facility, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Jumoke Oduwole and the AfDB President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, commended SAGLEV for its investments in the acceleration of the transition from Internal Combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to electric vehicles.
This is just as the minister equally ignited fresh hope in electric vehicles, stating that the sector is capable of jumpstarting our transportation and logistics business aspects of the economy.
Dr Oduwole, who visited the plant on Wednesday, July 30, 2025, assured that the “Nigeria First Policy” of Bola Ahmed Tinubu is committed to supporting investors like SAGLEV.
The Minister promised that the government would continue to deliver workable reforms for small and medium size enterprises, assuring that, the Tinubu-led administration, from industrial policy, trade policy to investment policies is focused on Nigerian investors and putting them first.
On patronage, Oduwole said “I don’t know about Nigerians having a challenge of patronising made in Nigeria goods.
To me, Nigerians are extremely patriotic. Anything Nigeria is extremely popular like the cloths and food we eat. I think we should stop this rhetoric of Nigerians not patronising Nigerian products. This is an investor that has brought in a product that is Chinese and it is going to be domiciled here that is manufacturing.
“He also has his own brand that will be manufactured here. SKD (semi-knicked down) means you put different levels of finishing touches, but all the way with the opportunity to scale to see the CKD (completely knocked down) parts to be manufactured here. This is what creates jobs and makes competitiveness and makes an economy grow.
“There is no shortcut to the work it takes. So we really need to acknowledge and support investors who have taken the hard road of going through finding land, finding technical partners, going through trade facilitations and all the reforms that are going on now.
“And making sure they are training young Nigerian technicians, making sure they expand after finishing with the Nigeria market and even while finishing with the Nigerian market exporting to the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“So it is really such an opportunity for growth and this is exactly what Bola Ahmed Tinubu wants to see and how he wants to support the domestic investors. It is a privilege and honour to be here today.”
Assuring of a good trade facilitation, the minister said “Trade facilitation is an important aspect of developing any economy. We import and also lead in export particularly to the rest of Africa. NCS has implemented a number of reforms and you heard the investor speaking to the fact that though, there are some teething problems but with the the automation, everybody is now being forced to do the right thing.
“We also have the National Single Window Project of Bola Ahmed Tinubu that came online. Now we have the technical partner online in some countries. It is the best in the world in the current form, partnering with the Nigerian ecosystem to deliver a National Single Window which is a digital public infrastructure that increases trade facilitations.
“By Q1 of 2026, we are going to see even more improvements in terms of trade facilitations. This is work in progress as you know I worked on Ease of Doing Business for nine years before being appointed as Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment. The administration is equally committed to the Auto Policy”,she said.
Also speaking at the event Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Joseph Osanipin said the government is working assidiously for the implementation of the Auto Policy, adding that they have already adopted the Vehicle Electrification Policy.
Osanipin said “For the auto policy, we have the policy already but as you know, some part of the policy has to move it from policy to legislation. We have gone far on that. We have done the first and second review. So we noticed one or two elements that we need to work on. We have consulted with top lawyers that are working on the drafting. In the next few months, we will be ready for that.
“First of all, we came up with an EV policy. That is the vehicle electrification policy which is already on. And then, last Thursday, we released the first National Occupational Standard (NOS), on how to maintain and how to service electric vehicles. This is the first manual, just like the curriculum that we will be using to train the technicians.
“Even the universities, technical colleges and college of education and all the Polytechnics are going to derive their curriculum from this NOS which is going to be used to train people that will work on electric vehicles. These are part of the policies we have brought up to support the adoption of electric vehicles in Nigeria.”
In his remarks, CEO of SAGLEV, Dr Gbenga Faleye, said the company has been working on the EV project for the past five years.
According to Faleye, SAGLEV has the franchise of the Chinese auto giant, Dongfeng Motors, for the entire Africa for EV.
He listed some of the challenges as: Financing, poor importation process, and low EV awareness, amongst others.
Although, Faleye informed that the charging infrastructure is already in place in the country, he lamented that many Nigerians are not still aware of the workings of the EV.
Explaining further, he said “We chose not to focus on challenges, but on solutions and the opportunities. We have trouble with importation. We can only add value by assembling EV here and not importing them.
Confirming that the market is there for EV, Faleye said, “The assembly plant can manufacture a minimum of 2, 500 cars per annum. If we have that demand, we can produce. That 2,500 is one shift of Monday to Friday. In two and half shifts, adding Saturday, we can produce 10,000 cars.
“This assembly plant is the very first automotive assembly plant in West Africa that can only assemble EVs. We don’t assemble two-wheelers or three- wheelers. We are the partners of Dongfeng for the entire Africa for EV.”
Similarly, as part of his ongoing efforts to support regional sustainable industrial development and climate-resilient transportation infrastructure across Africa, the AFDB President also visited SAGLEV EV assembly plant the following day (July 31, 2025l.
Speaking to journalists at the plant, Adesina pledged AfDB’s support to SAGLEV and other entrepreneurs in Africa that engage in the production of automobiles in order to reverse the current of fully built vehicles
The AfDB President stated, “We want to ensure we have companies that are also manufacturing automobiles in Africa. We can’t just be importing automobiles. So, manufacturing in Africa is a problem. For us, as African Development Bank, part of our work is industrialization. That is what you see here in SAGLEV plant.
“African manufacturers like SAGLEV need power, infrastructure to be able to lower the cost of production. Even related to that, electric vehicles require power to charge. That is why, at the bank, in the last 10 years, we have connected more than 28 million people to electricity. We are investing heavily in energy, even right here in Nigeria.
‘’Saglev is doing the right thing in Nigeria. Helping him is going to be a good asset. Cost of capital is always a challenge. He has put his equity into this. Cost of capital is five times higher than any other part of the world. We are in a position to help in many ways to risk lending to Nigeria auto manufacturers like this with world class facilities to assemble and manufacture electric vehicles.
‘’We also have lines of credit we provide for many commercial banks in Nigeria to support companies like this and our role,my role is also to be a champion and make sure wherever I go, I champion a good course.”
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