NAC, WesBank meet over national vehicle finance scheme

The officials of the National Automotive Council (NAC) and WesBank of South Africa on Wednesday met in Abuja on the proposed roll-out of made-in-Nigeria vehicle finance scheme later in the year. A statement by the NAC, its Director-General, Mr Aminu Jalal, led the Director, Policy and Planning, Mr Luqman Mamudu and Director, Industrial Infrastructure, Mr Waheed Odetoro to discuss the scheme.

 
The WesBank delegation comprised of Mr Eugene Ochse, Head, Africa Operations and Mr Simon Ingersent, designated CEO for Nigeria Operations. It said the WesBank officials also interacted with potential partners, including selected vehicle dealers to obtain first hand information and get acquainted with dealership practices peculiar to Nigeria. The statement said that NAC Scheme was designed around a network of vehicle dealers and distributors for the pilot project.

 
NAC signed a memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with FirstRand Bank in Johannesburg, South Africa in October 2014. The MoU mandates WesBank to manage consumer vehicle financing for Nigerian assembled vehicles. It also quoted Jalal as saying that the Nigerian government approved the Nigerian Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) to attract investments from global vehicle manufacturers and to grow the supply of locally-manufactured vehicles.

 
According to the statement, the MoU will allow WesBank to work closely with NAC to develop vehicle financing solutions. The aim, it said, was for vehicles built in Nigeria to be readily affordable for the average Nigerian. It recalled that Jalal said that the Vehicle Financing Scheme would make Nigerian-assembled vehicles affordable on convenient payment terms spread over a period of about four years at affordable interest rate.

 
The statement said the scheme was also intended to assist vehicle assembly plants in Nigeria to gain high volume within a short time so as to facilitate local components development.