Toyota must set up assembly plant in Nigeria, Imo East APGA candidate tells FG

• Chyma Anthony, APGA candidate for Imo East Senate District, has called on the federal government to tell Toyota to set up a plant in Nigeria
• Anthony said Nigeria is Toyota’s largest market in Africa, and yet the company has no presence in the country.
• He said Africa’s biggest economy should force the automaker to set up a car assembly plant in Nigeria.

Abuja-based lawyer, rights activist and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate for the Imo East senatorial district in the

In the February 25, 2023 general election, Mr. Chyma Anthony blamed the federal government for creating an opportunity for the Japanese automaker, Toyota, to rack up billions of Nigerian Naira to the detriment of local automakers.

Nigeria is Toyota’s largest market in Africa

Anthony criticized the government for looking elsewhere while the Toyota Company in Nigeria raked in billions of dollars a year without a functioning assembly plant in the country.

The Senate hopeful, while speaking to reporters on Wednesday, January 4, 2023, in Owerri, Imo State, on an election campaign, said excess profits in the amount of capital flight from Nigeria to Toyota coffers on behalf of importing cars is enough. place every unemployed Nigerian on a monthly social benefit of 100,000 naira.

Anthony revealed that seven to eight of every vehicle on the roads of Africa’s most populous nation are made by Toyota, meaning around N8 million made out of every N10 million earned from car imports goes to Toyota, however, the Japanese car company had persistently refused to open a functional manufacturing or assembly plant in Nigeria.

read also

New Year: Let’s do more to change Nigeria for the better, says Laolu Akande

This shocking reality that the National Assembly had not investigated, Anthony said, is why Nigerians in 2023 must demand a new generation of legislators who are ready to get Nigerians what is naturally theirs through effective representation. , proactive and efficient.

He said:

“In 2016, Toyota tried to persuade him to open an ‘imaginary’ plant in Lagos. They launched a Toyota Hiace more or less on a one-off and halted operations. Chairman Buhari in Yokohama, Japan, at a business conference in 2019 begged Toyota to open a car plant in Nigeria, this fell on deaf ears despite the great patronage of our country.

“In 2021, Toyota, to the chagrin of all men of good conscience around the world, opened a second car assembly plant in Ghana with a production capacity of around 2,000, scorning Nigeria and scorning President Buhari.

“Today, Nigeria imports Toyota vehicles from South Africa and Ghana, yet Nigeria is Toyota’s largest market in Africa.

read also

New Year: Uba Michael urges Nigerians to work together for a better country

“When you confront some of Toyota’s promoters in Nigeria, they keep giving you silly excuses as to why the company can’t set up a plant in Nigeria now. “Sometimes they blame the delay in the approval of the Law for the Development of the National Automobile Industry.

“I will not stand by and watch helplessly as Toyota continues to steal in Nigeria with impunity, Federal, State and local governments, institutions, individuals etc spend heavily on Forex to import Toyota vehicles, generating unimaginable capital colossal. flights

“If Toyota sets up a plant in Nigeria, given our huge patronage and demographics, these excess profits on these big capital leaks coming into Toyota’s coffers would benefit all of us. It could be used as a social benefit for the unemployed.” Antonio said.

FG should force the company to establish a plant in Nigeria

He further stated that the vehicle plants would employ a good number of Nigerians, especially youth, thus reducing the unemployment rate.

read also

Year in Review: Top Political Promises Made by Presidential Candidates Ahead of the 2023 Election

“I, Chyma Anthony, APGA Candidate for Imo East Senatorial District (Owerri Area), hereby call on President Muhammadu Buhari to use his powers to ban the importation of any make of Toyota vehicles until further notice.

“You must also invalidate, with immediate effect, any form of license for the importation of Toyota vehicles into Nigeria or for non-functioning assembly plants already issued to Toyota, until they are ready to come to the round table to give us assurances on the establishment of manufacturing. or an assembly plant in Nigeria,” he said.

Anthony also said that other vehicle companies and indigenous Nigerian auto concerns like Innoson, which already assemble or manufacture cars in Nigeria, must receive the necessary support from the federal government and each and every one to prosper and contribute their share in the development. general of the country

This, he said, will in turn push Toyota into a bind, that they may use their limit thinking to choose between setting up assembly or manufacturing plants in Nigeria or being squeezed out of the auto market in Africa’s biggest economy.

read also

Anti-sabotage group backs Tinubu for plan to remove fuel subsidy if elected

Another company starts a vehicle manufacturing plant in Enugu

Remember that legit.ng reported that another vehicle manufacturing company has started manufacturing vehicles in Enugu such as the famous Innoson Motors.

The company, Ingrace Motors, was praised by the Enugu state government for promoting locally manufactured vehicles in Nigeria.

Ingrace Chief Executive Officer Chinedu Onu displayed the company’s brands and recently donated one of the vehicles to the Enugu State Government to test its quality, flexibility and strength.

Source: Legit.ng