The first Nigerian made motorcycle; Naseni M1

A new milestone was reached in Nigeria as the first ever ‘made in Nigeria’ motorcycle was unveiled in Nnewi, Anambra State. The new motorcycle was constructed by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and named NASENI M1.

The new technological product has an 80C engine and was produced using local materials by Nigerian engineers.

Speaking at the launching event, the Executive Vice Chairman of the agency, Dr Mohammed Haruna, stressed the need for Nigeria to reach the highly publicized vision 20:2020 and claimed this is one of the paths to make that dream come through.

He continued by saying the country could improve its economy and become more independent when her citizens begin to actively participate in manufacturing and production to bring about advancement in technology in the country.

“Nigerians must demonstrate real capacities for engineering technology development, and production of manufactured goods and services, that is why NASENI had taken this bold step to demonstrate to Nigerians that Mr President’s dream is both realizable and even being realized.” He said.

He also called on the Federal Government to stop the importation of motorcycles into the country stating that Nigeria has perfected the technology and manufacturing capacity of mass production in the country.

“About 20 million Nigerians today rely on motorcycles as a means of transport and many unemployed youth 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.

“Nigeria, no doubt, has all the materials needed to produce motorcycles in Nigeria, 100 percent. NASENI has both the raw materials survey, their locations, equipment and the critical human capacity, design, feasibility studies and the business plan for running a successful plant to produce motorcycles. What we are waiting for now is for Nigerian entrepreneurs to come forward and take advantage of this profitable investment to manufacture motorcycles,” he said.

“The law establishing NASENI and its institutes does not allow it to embark on full scale manufacturing of products and or become full scale player in the market but for every technology and engineering products developed within the agency system to be ceded to the private sector for commercial purpose or mass production. Its mission includes hitherto establishing and nurturing appropriate dynamic science and engineering infrastructure base for achieving home initiated and home sustained industrialization through the development of relevant processes, capital goods and equipment necessary for job creation, national economic well-being and progress,” he added.

This is a welcome development in Nigeria and we want more of this in our fatherland. That is how booming Asian countries started until they developed to where they are today. Let’s perfect this motorcycle to compete and even beat imported motorcycles and then we will see where we go from there.

I still think banning importation of motorcycles is too early though. We have not seen this motorcycle on the roads, how can we know it will give us a reasonable performance. He also needs to implore state governments to lift motorcycle ban in their various states. When we start mass production, the quality of the product will determine if the government will take action in that direction.

Dangote came in with a workable plan in the cement industry and today, he doesn’t even need to tell government to ban cement importation. Literally, he banned it himself with his developmental work. More of this in Nigeria.

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Posted in Machines, technology