By Felix Khanoba
The Federal Government has called for stronger private-sector participation in Nigeria’s emerging clean-transport market, particularly in the development of CNG conversion centres and electric-vehicle charging infrastructure.
The National Automotive Design and Development Council, NADDC, said the transition to cleaner vehicles was gaining momentum, but warned that the country could not achieve widespread adoption of CNG and electric vehicles without substantial investment from private operators.
Director-General of NADDC, Otunba Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, made the disclosure during a one-day training programme organised for members of the Commerce and Industry Correspondents’ Association of Nigeria, CICAN and other journalists on Thursday in Abuja.
Represented by the Council’s Director of Public Relations, Mrs Susan Taiwo, Osanipin said NADDC was already licensing conversion centres across the country as part of efforts to accelerate the adoption of CNG-powered vehicles.
“We are creating centres for conversion, for CNG, worldwide and nationwide,” he said, adding that training sessions were underway this week in every geopolitical zone to teach technicians how to convert and install CNG systems in vehicles, with hundreds of people being trained in each zone.
He said the development of electric mobility was also receiving attention, although the lack of adequate charging infrastructure remained a major obstacle to mass adoption.
According to him, NADDC has piloted charging stations at selected high-end outlets, but expanding the network across the country would depend largely on private capital.
“There is no way you can travel with an electric vehicle now in Nigeria if investors don’t come in and start putting charging stations all over,” he said, pointing to the United States, where drivers can typically find a charging or refuelling station roughly every two hours on the road.
Osanipin described the shift towards CNG and electric vehicles as part of what he called a broader “clean air revolution”, stressing that Nigeria must keep pace with global developments in automotive technology.
“We cannot be left behind. We have to dance to the trend,” he said.
He explained that the Council’s role was primarily to create an enabling environment and encourage investors, rather than operate the automotive industry itself.
“The automotive industry is not a government industry. It is for individual investors to come in and take up from where we stop and invest, especially in the new trend of CNG and electric vehicles,” he said.
The NADDC boss also disclosed that Nigeria’s automotive manufacturing landscape had changed significantly over the past two decades, with almost 40 assembly plants now operating across the country.
Osanipin said the development represented a major improvement from the period when he began working in the sector, when there were no functioning vehicle assembly plants.
“When we started, those of us who were there know that there was no assembly plant in Nigeria that was working.
“But by the special grace of God, we have almost 40 assembly plants now that are functioning, at least 40 that are assembling cars here in Nigeria.”
He identified Innoson Motors as the country’s largest vehicle assembly company and cited Mikano, traditionally associated with generator manufacturing, as another company that had ventured into vehicle production.
According to him, the Council would continue supporting investments in CNG conversion facilities and EV charging infrastructure as demand for cleaner transportation increases.
He further appealed for closer collaboration between NADDC and journalists covering the automotive sector, saying inadequate publicity had contributed to limited public awareness of the Council’s activities.
“If you don’t amplify what you are doing, nobody will know what you are doing,” he said.
He described the CICAN training as the beginning of a more consistent engagement between the Council and industry correspondents.
