By Hosea Parah
Despite the presence of nearly 40 vehicle assembly plants are currently operational across Nigeria, Nigerians are still importing vehicles from outside the country.
Earlier in the month, the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis showed that Nigeria imported motor vehicles and automotive parts worth $602 million from the United States between January and May 2026, marking a 41.3 per cent increase from the $426 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.
The figures showed that passenger cars accounted for the largest share of exports to Nigeria during the five-month period. A breakdown of the data showed that U.S. exports of passenger cars to Nigeria rose to $454 million in the first five months of 2026 from $312 million in the corresponding period of 2025, representing an increase of 45.5 per cent.
Exports of automotive parts also increased to $122 million from $86m, indicating a 41.9 per cent year-on-year rise. However, exports of trucks, buses and special-purpose vehicles declined by 10.3 per cent to $26 million from $29 million recorded in the same period last year.
On a monthly basis, Nigeria imported $124 million worth of motor vehicles and parts from the U.S. in May 2026, slightly lower than the $131 million recorded in April.
Passenger car imports declined to $93 million in May from $98 million in April, while imports of trucks, buses and special-purpose vehicles fell marginally to $6 million from $7 million. Automotive parts imports remained unchanged at $26 million in both months.
Compared with May 2025, however, total imports rose by 30.5 per cent from $95 million to $124 million. Passenger car imports increased by 32.9 per cent from $70 million in May 2025 to $93 million in May 2026, while automotive parts imports rose by 36.8 per cent from $19 million to $26 million. Imports of trucks, buses and special-purpose vehicles declined slightly from $7 million to $6m over the same period.
But during a one-day human-centred data and AI masterclass for the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) on Thursday in Abuja, the Director-General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Joseph Osanipin, said the nearly 40 operational plants represented significant progress.
Osanipin, who was represented by the director of public relations, Susan Taiwo, spoke at the event, with the theme, ‘Reporting Nigeria’s automotive transformation, from policy to production and public impact.’
Noting that Nigeria previously had no functioning vehicle assembly plant, he said, “By the special grace of God, we have almost 40 assembly plants now functioning”.
He urged stakeholders to raise awareness of developments in the automotive industry, saying the sector needs sustained attention to realise its potential.
According to him, the automotive industry is no longer solely a government responsibility but requires increased participation from private investors.
Osanipin said NADDC had supported the transition toward cleaner mobility through initiatives targeting compressed natural gas (CNG) and electric vehicles.
He said the council had commenced training programmes across the country on CNG vehicle conversion and installation.
The Director-General said NADDC was also licensing commercial centres to undertake CNG conversion as part of efforts to expand the emerging ecosystem.
According to Osanipin, NADDC has licensed 80 CNG conversion centres nationwide and trained about 100 persons in each geopolitical zone on vehicle conversion and installation.
He said that the council had installed pilot electric vehicle charging stations in some tertiary institutions.
Osanipin, however, urged private investors to establish more charging stations and CNG facilities across the country.
He said adequate infrastructure was necessary to give Nigerians confidence to adopt electric and CNG-powered vehicles.
The NADDC boss said Nigeria must keep pace with global developments in cleaner transportation technologies.
He urged investors to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the automotive sector, particularly CNG and electric mobility.
“Inadequate charging infrastructure remains a major obstacle to EV adoption. Investors need to come in and invest in these projects so that people using electric vehicles can travel confidently to their destinations,” Osanipin said.
Meanwhile, Osanipin has called for the development of a robust domestic used-vehicle market that will reduce Nigeria’s continued dependence on imported used vehicles, popularly known as ‘tokunbo’.
As reported by The Sun, Osanipin said Nigeria’s used-vehicle market should be built around vehicles originally purchased and used within the country, rather than relying almost exclusively on automobiles discarded or sold off by users in other countries.
Osanipin spoke when the Managing Director of The Sun Publishing Company Limited, Mr Onuoha Ukeh, paid a courtesy visit to the Council’s headquarters in Abuja recently, accompanied by the Editor of the Daily Sun, Mr Iheanacho Nwosu.
According to him, used vehicles are not inherently bad, stressing that the real challenge is Nigeria’s dependence on used vehicles imported from other countries, instead of developing an internal market in which vehicles circulate from one owner to another.
He, however, decried a situation where huge foreign exchange goes to the importation of hundreds of thousands of used vehicles – a good number of which are in terrible condition – are imported into the country.
Osanipin also described as a deterrent the prevailing situation where the high volume of ‘tokunbo’ vehicles outweigh the low number of products from the auto plants in Nigeria.
He painted a picture of what he met on ground upon assumption of duties as the NADDC Director General in October, 2023, saying, “When we came in, we knew that we were facing a lot of challenges in the automobile industry. And we knew that we could not surmount the challenges in the next three, four, five years, or even 10 years.
“But we knew we had to start from somewhere and start laying the foundation towards tackling the challenges. And that was why we first identified the challenges after consultations with industry experts and all the stakeholders.
“We identified the majority of the problems and summarised them into three.”