Banks frustrate single-digit interest loan on vehicle purchase scheme-Reps

Maureen Aguta

The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Industry, Hon Enitan Badon, has disclosed that his members are considering a legislation that would boost local manufacturing of affordable brand new vehicles in the country, saying the 9th National Assembly approved a N10 billion single-digit vehicle purchase loan which could not be untilised by the National Agency for Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) because the banks frustrated it.

Speaking at the Coscharis Assembly Plant when he led some of his members on their oversight function to some of the auto assembly plants in Lagos on Thursday, Hon Badon said,”Our visit to Coscharis Assembly Plant is to have an on the spot assessment of the plant for us to be able to know in specific terms where they need our interventions in terms of enacting relevant laws to protect such investment. This surely will help us legislate on every support required to encourage such local organisations to further invest in our country towards achieving the best intentions of the government of the day”.

He described the investment at the Coscharis Assembly Plant in as huge, saying production activities at the plant are low because sales are low; and further called on Coscharis and other automotive dealers in the country who have invested in auto assembly to come up with a scheme which the Nigerian banks will not be part of it, saying government will support such vehicle purchase scheme to succeed.

He stated that a well targeted legislation is what the industry needs at this moment, not a policy which can be jettisoned by a new administration, saying the 9th NASS which he was part of approved N10 billion in the budget for the take-off of the single-digit interest rate vehicle purchase scheme, but it was unutilised by the NADDC because the banks failed to support it.

Also speaking during the visit, the Director – General of NADDC, who was represented by the Director Research and Development, Dr. Fidelis Achiv who equally led his team to visit the Coscharis Assembly Plant together with the House members commended Coscharis on the Assembly Plant that has rolled out different brands and now delivering the Geely brand. The agency promised to give all the necessary support it deserves to succeed in delivering the expected value for the country.

The Group Managing Director of Coscharis Group, Mr. Josiah Samuel who conducted the guest around the state of the art Assembly Plant and the other facilities in the organisation made showcase the plant which according to him can be compared to any global similar plant in the World.

His word, “ With what you’ve seen here today (Thursday), Coscharis has simply shown that if given the required support with the right conducive business environment, indigenous organisations like ours that has what it takes to compete in the global space will deliver world standard vehicles going by our pedigree with globally respected automobile brands we represent in Nigeria. Coupled with the new Geely brand added to our robust portfolio, we believe our locally assembled Geely vehicles will do well in the Nigeria market. As an entity that believes in our country Nigeria, we shall continue to do all in our space to sustain this local assembling of more brands from this plant as it also has the economic implications of creating more job opportunities both for skilled and unskilled labour that will definitely boost the country’s economy”.

By this announcement, according to Mr. Samuel, Coscharis Motors, aside of delivering one of the unique selling propositions of buying a brand new Geely with a six years warranty which is rare in the automotive sector, Coscharis Motors is set to embrace all the existing customers concerning their aftersales needs while offering them trade-in options, in order to facilitate easy ownership of the new or latest models.