If we were a right thinking people, the humble motorcycle would radically transform the Nigerian economy. By my calculations, Nigeria is the world's fifth largest user of motorcycles behind India, Vietnam, Indonesia and China
According to Nigeria's National Motorcycle and Tricycle Riders Association, there are 8m Okadas in use across the country. I put Okadas or commercial motorcycles at half of the total number used in Nigeria, meaning that the total number of motorcycles in operation across the country add up to about 15m
China remains the world’s leading motorcycle exporter, controlling 29% of the total global market and raking in $6.1bn annually. Japan follows with an 11.6% market share worth $2.4bn, while India is third with an 8.5% market share worth $1.8bn
What I find totally unacceptable, despicable and downright criminal is that Nigeria is not a major motorcycle manufacturing economy. Any year one economics student will tell that given the high level of demand, skilled workforce available and abundance of raw materials locally, Nigeria is tailor-made to be one massive motorcycle manufacturing plant
Do you know that if motorcycles were manufactured in Nigeria, it would dramatically reduce their costs further, expanding the market and boosting sales significantly. It costs less to manufacture motorcycles in Nigeria than in India, Japan or China
Most West African countries do not have roads as good as Nigeria, so are much more dependent on motorcycles than we are. If we had a massive motorcycle manufacturing plant that churned out say 1m bikes a year, they would all easily be sold within Ecowas alone
Within Nigeria, just think of all those farmers who cannot get to their farms in the rainy season. They will use their motorcycles on a daily basis and only need to bring in trucks at harvest time when they need to move their produce to market
Those of you who have been to Cameroon will know that the roads there are simply atrocious. Nigeria could probably sell 1m motorcycles to Cameroon alone in a year as they do not have expansive motorways like the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the Lagos-Badagry Expressway of the Sagamu-Benin Expressway. Their towns are linked by single lane roads, which can become impassable during the rainy season
We Africans use motorcycles for everything, using it to carry goods, livestock, other motorcycles, as taxis and even to pull cars. Why one Nigerian governor has not gone to say Honda, Yamaha, Triumph, Suzuki, Kawasaki etc to say come and open a plant in my state is totally beyond me. If I was Nigeria's transport minister, I would invite the chief executives of all these companies to Abuja and read them the riot act - Open a plant here or get the hell out of our market!
As a people, are we not tired of being perennial consumers? Surely there is something wrong with us that we are content to be born-importers, only exporting raw primary products like crude oil and cash crops. We need to draw the line in the sand and say that as from today, anything we purchase, we give ourselves five years to manufacture it. Anything we cannot manufacture, then let us do without it until we can. Something radical needs to be done to change our mindset!
