The President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Gabriel Idahosa, has urged the federal government to remove the many obstacles that hinder the organised private sector (OPS) from investing, especially in the areas of the electric vehicles (EVs) optimisation and the switch to gas-powered vehicles.
Idahosa said while the government is claiming to encourage the switch to EVs and gas-powered vehicles, it is not encouraging private players from investing in the space as a result of excessive import duties, zero support and numerous bottlenecks.
This is an obvious, significant avenue for job creation. With EVs, we would need charging stations and this would simply mean a new, sustainable economy is being created. Government should identify these opportunities and actively encourage the OPS to invest in them.
“Government should, however, first remove all the bottlenecks on the way before calling the OPS to come and invest; for example, duties on some of these products needed to train and equip the young technicians. It is then we would begin to see and feel the effects of the tough economic decisions taken last year,” he said.
He opined that several vehicles are now running on gas, with some people considering EVs and said it is expected that prices will start to come down. “We also expect that with more refineries coming on board, transportation costs will reduce which will be a positive gain because transport and food are of primary concern to every Nigerian as they are the primary drivers of inflation.
“In various states, we are seeing EVs and gas-powered vehicles on the road and efforts are being made to expand the number of these categories of vehicles.
This year is all about enjoying the dividends of the tough decisions that were taken last year, especially in regards to fuel subsidy removal.”
He urged the government to invest and give incentives to private sector players to also invest in alternative types of transport, especially in terms of import duty waivers for equipment required to build autogas stations.
“We also need government support in local assembly of gas-powered vehicles. Some companies in Nigeria are already assembling vehicles using gas and they need government support. If we can have thousands of gas-powered vehicles being assembled locally, it will help in creating thousands of jobs. Jobs are slowly being created for the technicians converting petrol-powered vehicles to gas-powered vehicles; young people are being trained in this area and we want it to continue across the country.”
Idahosa also urged state and local governments to invest in training young people in vehicle conversion and management of EVs to create jobs and stimulate the economy.