Nissan made this appeal through its Director of Sales and Operations, Jim Dando, who said instead of allowing every country in the sub-region own a vehicle assembly plant, which might not be economically viable, some countries should rather concentrate on their areas of proportional advantage.
He said grey imports are hugely problematic, not just because they skew the market, but they create expectations about after-sales service, which the manufacturers often can’t meet because the vehicles aren’t formerly made for African conditions and therefore, there can’t be spares or trained technicians to service them.
Mr. Dando would rather the respective governments raise import tariffs and duties on grey imports and drop the duties on locally made vehicles, while allowing the OEMs to import other range of vehicles at discounted duties. Nissan Group of Africa is a founding member of the African Association of Automotive Manufacturers, AAAM, a body set up in 2015 to make vehicles for African conditions as well as create sustainable, competitive and continental automotive industry.
Earlier in 2014, soon after the inauguration of the National Automotive Industry Development Plan , the Nissan group also became the first Foreign Direct Investment to partner with West African Conglomerate Stallion Group to establish a wholly indigenous Nissan vehicle assembly plant in Lagos Nigeria.