By Moses Akaigwe
The Senate Committee on Public Procurement has pledged that the Renewed Hope Nigeria First policy of the Federal Government would lift Nigeria’s auto industry by ensuring that ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) prioritise the patronage of locally produced vehicles.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Ipinsagba Olajide Emmanuel, gave the assurance while on a tour of Dangote Sinotruk West Africa Limited (DSWAL), in Ikeja, Lagos, recently.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1718806029429-0’); });
Emphasizing that the introduction of the policy is an indication that the government realizes the need to ensure that local manufacturers survive, the committee pledged to support DSWAL and other local manufacturers.
Sen. Emmanuel stated that President Bola Tinubu had directed that MDAs should patronise goods manufactured in Nigeria, stating that a bill on the new policy has reached the third stage in the Senate.
When the bill is passed and it becomes an act, it would mandate the MDAs to source no less than 80 percent of their vehicles as well as other goods and services locally, while 20 percent foreign component could be imported, if necessary.
According to the senator, all stakeholders, including vehicle manufacturing plants like Dangote Sinotruk, would be invited to display their made-in-Nigeria products at a public hearing on the bill, to be organised by the Senate.
When the bill is passed, and implementation begins, the committee hinted, a lot of manufacturers behind imported brands would begin to relocate to Nigeria thus contributing massively to the economy.
The Senate committee members were at DSWAL on Saturday, August 9, 2025, on an oversight tour, particularly in respect of the bill, whose purpose is to stimulate the growth of local industries by ensuring that their products are patronised by MDAs and the public.
Earlier, while welcoming the lawmakers, the DSWAL team, led by the managing director, Mr. Hikmat B. Thapa, bemoaned the challenges Dangote Sinotruk and other local automakers were facing, stressing that if nothing is done urgently to address them, assembly plants across the nation might be forced to shut down.
Mr. Thapa disclosed that particularly painful is a situation where fully built imported vehicles are cheaper in the market than those produced by local assembly, which has forced buyers to embrace foreign products, to the detriment of the domestic auto plants and the economy in general.
He said that the cheaper fully built up vehicles, especially the trucks, that are now being imported by buyers would have been conveniently produced in Nigeria by DSWAL using either CKD or SKD kits, because the company has the installed capacity.
Other challenges listed by the Dangote Sinotruk management included the invasion of the market by used (tokunbo) vehicles that are usually in terrible condition, unavailability of forex, difficulty in opening letters of credit, very high energy cost, shunning of made-in-Nigeria vehicles by MDAa, and unavailability of local content.
The Managing Director, therefore, appealed to the senators to push for the protection of the local auto plants by, among other measures, legislating against importation of fully built vehicles, ensuring full implementation of the Nigeria First policy of the present government, properly regulating the activities of agencies, and ensuring availability of affordable power.
He underscored the need for the government to introduce financing and credit schemes that would enable small, medium and large organisations to buy made-in-Nigeria vehicles.
The DSWAL Managing Director guided the visitors on a tour of both the section of the plant producing trucks with SKD (semi-knicked down) parts and the newly commissioned lines where the vehicles are manufactured on CKD (completely knocked down) basis.
A joint venture between Dangote Industries Limited and Sinotruk of China, DSWAL started operations in 2017, but completely knocked down (CKD) manufacturing commenced in June, 2024 .
Other members of the Senate Committee on Public Procurement Senator Haruna Manu, Deputy Committee Chairman! Mr. Fredrick Odey, Committee Clerk; and Dr. Shuaib Abdullahi.
The post Made-in-Nigeria vehicles in focus as senators tour Dangote Sinotruk appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.
