STAKEHOLDERS in the Nigerian auto industry have put the value of the totality of Nigeria’s spare parts market currently at N12.5billion, as against N750m in 2001, adding that the industry loses an average of N500 million annually to fake auto parts.
Dr. Oscar Odiboh, an auto management consultant, while delivering his speech at a seminar in Lagos recently, pointed out that the Nigerian auto industry is one with a chequered history, notable achievements and contemporary challenges.  The height of the challenges, according to him, is the menace of fake parts which has filled the market lately and therefore needs drastic measures to tackle. “A car is made up of an average 14,000 parts and each one can be faked,” he said. “For each car part, there are an average six versions in Nigeria,” he added.
Odiboh  said the motor spare parts market is a big one in Nigeria that should not be relegated to the background, while disclosing that the Nigeria’s auto industry loses an average N500 million annually to local fabricators, faceless re-builders and imitation importers.
“The value of the totality of Nigeria’s spare parts market which was N750 million in 2001 is now estimated at N12.5 billion in 2011 and one out of four brand new cars is abandoned or resold by Nigerians due to spare parts problems,” he said.
While lamenting that the reign of fake parts is a major cause of the stunted growth of auto dealerships in Nigeria, he urged that automobile companies must imbibe the culture of ensuring the availability of genuine parts prior to the importation or assembly of the new vehicles concerned, as non-availability and non-affordability aid the proliferation of the fake ones.
Odiboh also called on the government agencies to monitor the auto companies, especially the incoming ones, to ensure that they have enough genuine spare parts on ground before sales activities could commence.
He added that spare parts business licence and a displayable symbol of genuine parts should be issued to accredited sellers in order to monitor and seal off the premises used for the selling of fake auto spare parts, while the Nigerian Automotive Council should sponsor The Automobile Spare Parts Bill at the National Assembly to empower Nigerians to take legal actions against sellers of fake automobile parts.