by 
The National Automotive Design and Development Council, NADDC, will soon be organizing a nationwide Automotive Design Competition to engage and promote the incredible creative and innovative talents of our youth.
According to a statement made available to Transport Day newspaper by NADDC, and signed by Rasheed Bello, the competition is “not to design sports and luxury cars, but to conceptualize highly advanced, innovative and cost-effective strategically positioned market driven concepts that would be produced in Nigeria. NADDC will support the development of winning concepts and integrate local content, feeding directly into the Nigerian automotive ecosystem, especially our proposed Automotive Industrial Clusters for Nnewi, Kaduna and Oshogbo”
The NADDC added that “Automotive Design goes beyond beautiful shapes, it is about the strategic conceptualization and development of applicable transportation solutions that will enable survival and economic growth. NADDC is working with industry professionals and stakeholders, and will soon be launching the Automotive Design Competition”.
It was revealed that “already, a Local Organizing Committee has been inaugurated to chart the pathway towards this proposed competition”.
Meanwhile, the NADDC DG revealed that a total of 57 automakers have received approval to establish auto assembly plants in Nigeria, just as a total of 10,673 vehicles were assembled last year in the country in pursuit of the NAIDP. It was also stated that the assembly plants had between January and July this year produced 8,473 automobiles.
Part of the measures to encourage more production of vehicles locally and continued patronage was the enforcement of an Executive Order by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo to all its ministries, departments and agencies of the government to buy made-in-Nigeria’s vehicles.
In 2013, the NADDC said 1,605 vehicles were assembled locally; that was when only 11 firms had approval to assemble vehicles in Nigeria. The staff strength of all the assembly plants, it said, had risen from 745 in 2014 to 4,782 this year.
It would be recalled that the newly appointed Director General of NADDC, Mr. Jelani Aliyu is reputed for being the chief designer of the now famous Chevrolet Volt.