The National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) has commenced a nationwide registration of motor dealers as part of efforts to create a more organised, transparent and data-driven automotive market in Nigeria.

The Council said the digital registration framework would provide a verifiable identity for legitimate motor dealerships, while addressing longstanding challenges associated with informality, fragmented records, inadequate data and limited visibility of operators in the sector.

The Director-General of NADDC, Otunba Oluwemimo Joseph Osanipin, stated this in a speech delivered on his behalf by the Director, Policy, Planning and Statistics, Mr Umar Nura Sidi, during a sensitization programme on the dealership registration framework for the North-West region in Kaduna on Wednesday.

Osanipin said the exercise was not designed merely to impose another administrative requirement on motor dealers, but to establish a credible system through which legitimate businesses could be identified, documented and integrated into the formal automotive ecosystem.

According to him, the registration framework would enable the Council to develop a reliable database of motor dealerships across the country, providing government with better information on the size, distribution and activities of operators within the automotive market.

He said the availability of accurate industry data would strengthen policy formulation and support the development of interventions capable of addressing the actual needs and challenges confronting motor dealers and the wider automotive sector.

The NADDC boss said registered dealers would also be better positioned to access institutional finance and business opportunities because financial institutions and potential business partners would have a verifiable means of identifying and assessing legitimate operators.

“For the dealer, registration provides an opportunity to establish a verifiable business identity within the automotive sector,” he said.

Osanipin added that the framework would also help strengthen consumer confidence by making it easier to distinguish legitimate dealerships from operators whose businesses had not been properly documented within the formal automotive system.

He said the initiative was part of the Council’s broader efforts to build a structured, sustainable and competitive automotive industry in line with the objectives of the National Automotive Industry Development Plan.

The National President of the Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON), Prince Ajibola Adedoyin, welcomed the initiative, saying proper regulation of the subsector would enable dealers to establish stronger identities and participate more effectively in the development of automotive policies.

Adedoyin said motor dealers remained an important component of the national economy and had previously drawn government’s attention to the need for proper regulation and organisation of the sector.

He said the registration framework could help transform a subsector that had for years accommodated operators without a common identification or organised structure, urging dealers to take advantage of the exercise.

The NADDC said the North-West was particularly important to the registration exercise because of its large vehicle and automotive products market, driven by commercial activities, agriculture, transportation, logistics and regional trade.

The Council urged motor dealers across the region and the country to participate in the registration exercise, assuring stakeholders that it would continue to engage dealers, AMDON, state governments, financial institutions and other relevant agencies to ensure that the system was practical, transparent and responsive to the realities of the Nigerian automotive market. (The Nation)