The Director-General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Otunba Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, on Wednesday moderated a high-level panel session at the ECOWAS Regional Automotive Industry Development Forum in Abuja, where stakeholders called for coordinated policies to attract greater investment into automotive manufacturing and assembly across West Africa.
The Day Two panel session, themed “Unlocking Investor Commitment to Automotive Manufacturing and Assembly Across the ECOWAS Region,” brought together policymakers, manufacturers, regulators and industry leaders to examine strategies for creating a more competitive and investment-friendly automotive ecosystem across the region.
In his opening remarks, Osanipin underscored the automotive sector’s strategic importance in driving industrialisation through local manufacturing, component production, technology transfer, job creation and stronger regional value chains.
He noted that although West Africa represents a growing vehicle market, the region continues to grapple with challenges such as heavy dependence on imported vehicles, underutilised assembly capacity, fragmented markets, limited local sourcing and policy uncertainty, all of which have constrained investment.
The NADDC boss stressed that predictable government policies, harmonised regulations and closer collaboration among governments, regulators and the private sector are essential to creating an enabling environment capable of attracting long-term investments into the automotive industry.
The panel featured the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM), Chief Innocent Chukwuma; Plant Manager of Japan Motors Ghana, Mr. Mohammed Byrouth; a representative of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Adeyemi Folorunsho; and the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority, Prof. George Agyei.
Panelists identified policy certainty, local component manufacturing, support for small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), regional sourcing and harmonisation of automotive standards and vehicle homologation across ECOWAS member states as critical factors for boosting investor confidence and expanding market access.
The session concluded with a collective call for coordinated regional policies aimed at encouraging investment, deepening regional integration and positioning the ECOWAS region as a globally competitive hub for automotive manufacturing and assembly.
