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.
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