The Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of NASENI, Engr. Dr. Mohammed Sani Haruna, riding on the made-in-Nigeria motorcycle
Only
recently President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the National Space
Council and entrusted it to make Nigeria produce motor vehicles, boats
and aircrafts in short notice. This Tuesday, the National Agency for
Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) presented the first
exclusively Nigerian motorcycle, NASENI M1, in Nnewi, Anambra State.
The
80C engine motorcycle was designed and manufactured by the National
Engineering Design and Development Institute (Nnewi), a subsidiary of
NASENI.
Speaking
at the launching in Anambra State, the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of
the agency, Dr.Mohammed Haruna, said the made-in-Nigeria motorcycle was
proof of the potential capability of the agency to provide necessary
engineering and technology infrastructure for Nigeria's industrial
development.
The
EVC explained, "The Federal Government, which the Agency is part of,
has promised Nigerians a better socio-economic deal by year 2020 even as
Mr.President has also committed the government to elevate the economic
status of Nigeria to be among the 20 fastest growing economies in the
world by 2020."
Dr.Mohammed
Haruna remarked, "Nigerians must demonstrate real capacities for
engineering technology development and production of manufactured goods
and a service, saying that is why NASENI had taken this bold step to
demonstrate to Nigerians that Mr.President’s dream is both realizable
and is even being realized."
He
called on the federal government to ban the importation of motorcycles:
"NASENI is angry that all these things are continuously being imported
when we have the capacity to produce them locally. We are urging
government to ban the importation of these items and we assure
government that with the needed financial support, NASENI can do even
better than what is being imported.
"The
motorcycles produced here have local components. The plastics and iron
used were produced by other institutes of NASENI. The ductile iron that
is used was produced by our institute in Akure. The plastic components
of it are also partially produced by our institute in Okene and also by a
private company here in Nnewi. The electrical aspect of it was produced
by Cutix Nigeria PLC in Nnewi."
"About
20 million Nigerians today rely on motorcycles as a means of transport
and many unemployed youths and men support their families or earn a
living from running motorcycle as a commercial venture. Imagine the
large number of jobs that will be created if only Nigeria could close
her borders against the importation of motorcycles and allow
entrepreneurs to invest in the manufacturing of the parts including
production of the motorcycle locally.
"Nigeria, no doubt, has all the
materials needed to produce motorcycles in Nigeria, 100 percent. NASENI
has both the raw materials survey, their locations, equipment and the
critical human capacity, design, feasibility studies and the business
plan for running a successful plant to produce motorcycles. What we are
waiting for now is for Nigerian entrepreneurs to come forward and take
advantage of this profitable investment to manufacture of the
motorcycles," he stressed.
He reiterated the need for the private
sector, especially the Small and Medium Scale Entreprises (SME's) to
collaborate with the agency by buying into the technology and mass
producing them, stressing that doing so will not only contribute
immensely to the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but will also
depopulate the growing unemployment market.
"The law establishing NASENI and its
institutes does not allow it to embark on full scale manufacturing of
products and or become full scale player in the market but for every
technology and engineering products developed within the agency system
to be ceded to the private sector for commercial purpose or mass
production. Its mission includes hitherto establishing and nurturing
appropriate dynamic science and engineering infrastructure base for
achieving home initiated and home sustained industrialization through
the development of relevant processes, capital goods and equipment
necessary for job creation, national economic well-being and progress,"
he added.
In a statement signed by the Chief
Information Officer (Media and Protocol), Mr. Segun Ayeoyenikan, it said
hitherto, NASENI's mandate is concerned with activities in the areas of
capital goods research, production and reverse engineering of parts
with respect to engineering materials (iron, steel, nonferrous metals
and alloys, plastics, glass, ceramics, polymer electronics and
nanotechnology); industrial and analytical chemical materials including
industrial glasses; scientific equipment and components for education,
research and industry including measuring instruments, electronic
components, communication equipment and computers, solid minerals
machinery and other heavy equipment manufacturing.
Manufacturing a motorcycle may not be
rocket science or considered a landmark in other climes, but in Nigeria,
with its comatose economy, decrepit manufacturing sector and untapped
industrialisation potential, it is an avant-garde breakthrough. What
NASENI has done will hopefully reverse the trend that is fast becoming a
major feature of our national life where everything foreign is seen as
superior to local breeds.
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