 And now to our discussion segment. The whole idea of the new 10-year national automotive policy is to bring it up to date with current realities. Also, it will put our auto industry on the proper footing. I have joined in me right now the CEO of Gen Motors, Lu and Mimo, or Sonic Mi. Many thanks for joining us. Where are Mimo? Good morning. Good morning. Thanks for being on the show. Let's look at this new policy by the federal government. Now the new approved NAIDP is aimed at enabling the exponential increase in the local production numbers of vehicles. A region 40% local content, attained in 30% locally produced electric vehicles, generating one million jobs. That's a very high order. But how feasible is this, Mimo? Yes, the new plan looked aggressive compared to the plan that was in place since 2013. But when you look at those indices, when you look at the objective that the new plan turned to achieve, let alone by the 40% local content, this is achievable. Because when you look at the parts that make vehicles, the body, the seat, the tire, we can do most of this in Nigeria. We only need that encouragement and we need more investment in that area. Why should we be important tire into Nigeria? Why should we be important play part? Why can't we do the border work? We have the method and every other thing that needs to be put in place to put together to make a vehicle. Why should we do this outside the country? Especially why do we do the seats outside the country? So all of these ones are part of what if we put them together and then do the sources we have with them. We can achieve the 40% local content. Let's move to electric vehicle. Electric vehicle, when you look at the most expensive parts of any electric vehicle with the battery. So when you take out the battery, the other part, when you put all that together, they are not that expensive again. Then, state battery, for example, we have the lithium. We have lithium in commercial quantity in Nigeria. We have the deposit in commercial quantity in Nigeria. If we invest in production of battery alone, we are almost achieving that 40% local content in production of electric vehicle. So that one also is achievable. Let's move to one million job creation. When you look at the direct job and the indirect job, one million is even a side play. We can do far, far more than that. And I believe that it's aggressive. It's about the action we put into the plan. It's aggressive really, but we can achieve it. I think it's achievable. I get your point. Let me talk about electric vehicles for one minute before we move on to other issues. I'm 30% locally produced electric vehicles. So far, what are we producing in terms of electric vehicles? You talked about having lithium in abundance here in the country, but how have we been able to allocate resources and also manage same, judging by the body language of the government and what we have or we have had over time? Yes, the electric vehicle production truly is quite expensive compared to ICA, that is the internal combustion engine vehicles. So the cost really is high. But currently, what Nigeria produces most currently is what I call not very few in particular, but as of today, we in our company, we have launched the bus, we have launched our, and we are going to launch many other electric vehicles. But again in Nigeria, a lot of other initiatives are there, tricycle are there, bicycles are there, you go to some parts of the east, some parts of the north, you see people using a lot of tricycle, electric vehicle manufacture right here in Nigeria. So in Nigeria, a lot of effort is going into manufacturing of tricycle. While some other people are focusing like us, we are focusing more on the motorcycle, the buses, the many buses, the bigger ones and all these commercial buses and we believe in future, when we commit more funds, it's something we show that Nigeria can achieve a lot in this regard. Alright, ten years is actually a long time, and the new plan is from this year to 2030, but let's examine that of 2013. And the federal government said this new policy is an improvement of the under-2013 Automotive Industry Development Plan, which was in place before. If you were to access or to assess it rather, how far would you say that we have come from there and were we able to achieve most of the plans that we had in the last ten years before moving on to the next? Yes, I would say NADDC, the government arms that is involved in implementing the plan, that is NADAS is National Automotive Development Industry Plan. So this plan is what we are put together. That is the industry plan we are put together by NADDC. Their goal is to ensure implementation, but unfortunately they have not achieved a lot. And I'm sure that's why we are having a new plan in place. So the new plan is building on the existing one. Like the existing one have some objective. And the objective is to encourage local production and increase the percentage of local content. This has been achieved, even though we are not at the rate of change ten years ago, but I think we are moving toward that. Then part of it is to stimulate valuation. When we say valuation, that is called the one enacted, the one approved in 2010. Valuation, a lot of things. A lot of valuation more front or surrounding that automotive industry. Just as I mentioned, there are a lot of things that are associated with it. So we need to also start emphasizing things. So in this area we have not done much also. When we look at the old plan generally, it's good that we have started. It's good that we are pushing it. And in the last few years, NADDC has done a lot in improving or building or implementing what was in the plan. And I'm sure based on what their experience, the experience they had in the last few years, that was what informed the new plan now. And basically the old plan did not make much impact or did not see more concerning electric vehicle. But this new plan now is coming and explaining and putting more investment into electric vehicle. They are looking at that. And again, they said they want to enforce the existing plan to enforce local patronage, especially patronage by the government. It's the encouraged government patronage. But now they are saying they want to enforce it. I think the little thing is here and there. We made the plan more better. Alright, let's examine some of the things that the minister believes that will come out of all of this. He actually believes that's the minister of trade, believes that this new policy or plan will strategically provide outstanding competitive fiscal and non-fiscal incentives needed by the automotive industry, manufacturers, producers, investors, developers, and of course relevant stakeholders. Do you agree and how can this be achieved? Yes. Even though the details of that policy have not been released, based on what the minister for trade said, if you are looking at, we've been asking for a lot of initiative in this regard, especially regarding the fiscal and non-fiscal policies put in place to encourage manufacturers, encourage investors. Because if you don't have all these plans, if you don't have this incentive in place, a lot of people will not want to talk. Investors want to put their money where they know the return will be good for them. So if you have incentive, the incentive may increase your return. Look at those incentives. It encourages more people to invest in it. So let's wait and see what they want to do. If you say they are going to work on a duty, how can they come up with a good duty regime that will encourage manufacturing of vehicles in Nigeria? They will come up with taxation. How are they going to use tax to encourage these? These are the things we are expecting them to initiate or explain for that in the policy when the policy is finally released to the public. But I believe if all these incentives are put in place, certainly it is going to aggressively push Nigeria and improve the economy of Nigeria. Alright, let's compare with other countries, specifically in terms of production, usage and appreciation of electric cars or even assembling as it is. Are we lagging behind? Some people seem to believe that. And what is your advice moving forward? Because I know Nigerians are one of the people that, we are one of the people that drive or appreciates luxury in terms of cars and the good life. But so far, how have we come in terms of electric vehicles? Generally, in the automotive industry, we are not moving as fast as expected. Like compared to a country like South Africa. The South Africa is moving around 6%, 7%, that is automotive industry contributing to GDP. And when you compare that to Nigeria, we are far, far behind. This can be improved upon. In terms of numbers, a lot of, for example, they manufacture a lot of electric vehicles locally. Compared to one in their manufacturing locally. For example, the install capacity of the assembly plants, we have in it about 450,000. But how many are we manufacturing annually? It's about 10,000 to 15,000. So we mean the percentage of what we are doing compared to install capacity is very, very low. And again, compared to what an absolute number of South African is doing, we are far, far behind. What are the reasons for this low figures, really? What are the reasons? A lot of things contributed. Number one, as I mentioned, due to that failure in the completion of Filipe River, where the import duty on the Filipe River is so much the same thing as the duty you pay on when you bring in SKD or CKD. It's all this past that make up the equal and current production. And again, the cost of production in Nigeria is so high because we talk of power, we talk of access to form. Sometimes you go to commercial power, for example. Commercial power now starts as high as 25% to 30%. Nobody can borrow money from commercial power and put it in automotive industry and come out with profit. Again, we mentioned what the new plan was trying to achieve. The new plan was to enforce local patronage. If there is no local patronage, I mean, what do you guys not want to say? Because by the time you don't have that competitive advantage, the time of price, do you know the people that bring Filipe River in can sell at a lower price? So that makes it a bit difficult for people to patronize you. When you don't have exclusive patronage, it's discouraging people. So this is part of the reasons why Nigeria is lacking people. Thank you so much. We've been speaking with Mimo Orsonikbi, he is the CEO of Jet Motors. Thanks for your time and of course all the wonderful imputes you have brought on this particular discourse. Thank you for having me. All right, as we go today, empowering Nigerians for the demand in several lines will reduce the unemployment rate, especially among the youths. This was the position of a group at its one-day work skills employability and entrepreneurship program. I'll leave you with details of that report and I'll see you again tomorrow. My name is Justin Akadoni. Many thanks for watching. Bye for now.