FORD'S ENTRY INTO THE WEST AFRICAN MARKET TO BE STRATEGIC.

Ford would not be rushed into setting up an assembly plant in Nigeria without a fully developed and functional support service system such as road, railway and electricity were the words of The President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Company (South Africa),Nemeth spoke at a forum facilitated by Coscharis Motors, one of the two representatives of Ford in Nigeria. Ford Motor Corporation says it has not foreclosed the establishment of an automobile assembly plant in Nigeria, but insists that the conditions must be right for it to do so. The automobile firm said one of the conditions is for Nigeria to have a free-trade agreement with its neighboring nations to ensure free movement and unhindered market for all locally produced vehicles and other goods within the West African region. Jeff Nemeth, who dropped the hint, said the American automaker would not risk having a vehicle assembly plant in the country unless there were ready markets for its products. Although he said Ford already had vibrant assembly plants in South Africa supplying vehicles to different parts of Africa, including Nigeria, the firm was still studying the new auto policy of the Federal Government and the business environment to determine the viability of a local assembly plant. The Federal Government had raised the tariff on imported cars from 22 per cent to 70 per cent, as part of the new auto policy announced in September last year for companies without assembly plants in the country. It allowed local manufacturers of cars to import Completely-Knocked-Down vehicles at zero per cent and Semi-Knocked-Down parts 1 and 2 at five per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, as a way of encouraging automakers to start assembling their vehicles in the country. While Nissan and Hyundai have rolled out the first set of locally assembled vehicles to join existing local auto firms such as the Pan Nigeria, Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing of Nnewi and the National Trucks Manufacturer of Kano, Kia and a number of Chinese automakers are warming up to start production.