The Chief Of Nigerian Army Staff, (COAS) Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has announced that the Nigerian Army will begin to export combat vehicles to other African countries in the year 2030. This information was released during the commissioning ceremony of the Nigerian Army Vehicle Manufacturing Company (NAVMC) in Kaduna.

Nigerian-made Mine Resistant Vehicle (Picture source sunnewsonline)

General Buratai noted that the Nigerian Army has suffered some limited setbacks in the ongoing Counter Insurgency operations in the North East, partly due to the ineffectiveness of some Armoured Fighting Vehicles and other light skin vehicles imported from overseas.

He said the Nigerian Armed Forces ability to tackle internal and external challenges shows that much need to be done to reposition the Nigerian Army and the Armed Forces of Nigeria as a whole towards self-sufficiency in production of indigenous military equipment and other arsenals of war.

According to him, the overall objectives are to ensure that NAVMC (Nigerian Army Vehicle Manufacturing Company) meets the Nigerian Army vehicle requirement by 2025 and begin export of its products to other African Countries by 2030, adding that “the Armed Forces Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) and other tactical and logistics vehicles commissioned today will be deployed to support ongoing operations in the North East and other parts of Nigeria.”

He said the NAVMC is poised to meet the Army’s requirement in production of AFVs and also project their business capacity to other African countries in the near future.

"In order to promote indigenous contractors and local content policy of the Federal Government, the military vehicle manufacturing company will partner with some companies like ASD Motors Nig Ltd, Venture Force Limited, Innoson Motors, Machine Tool Company Osogbo and Peugeot Automobile Kaduna amongst others", added the General Buratai.