Indegineous truck producer, Anambra Motor Manufacturing Company (ANAMMCO), has identified policy instability as a bane of the auto industry.
It said the country discourages foreign investment and loses multimillion dollar businesses to its neighbours, particularly Ghana, by not sticking to the 2013 Nigeria Automobile Policy.
An automobile policy law and better access to foreign exchange, it noted, would stem the tide of government policy somersault, and boost local vehicle production and investor confidence.
ANAMMCO Chairman, Dr. Godwin Okeke, speaking at its 46th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Lagos, said: “The policy somersault of government in applying the same import duty rate of 10 per cent on Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) and Fully Built (FB) buses and trucks took its toll on local manufacturing of automobile as it was cheaper to import FB units.
“Therefore, assembly took a hard hit which can be gleaned from our income from this source, plummeting from N85 million in 2020 to just N3 million in 2021.
“As the technical partnership between ANAMMCO and the renowned truck manufacturing company, ‘DONGFENG’ of China continued, the perennial restricted access to foreign currency to procure input is adversely affecting the volume of trucks for sale.
“Revenue in 2020 was N304 million, up from N261 million in 2020. Profit before taxation for the year was N24 million, about the same level in 2020.”
Managing Director Okeke Maduchukwu added that the firm had, notwithstanding the challenges, expanded its operations to Lagos and Abuja.
He said the new ANAMMCO Commercial Vehicles Centres in Lagos and Abuja were activated to increase the accessibility of its products and services.