Pat Stevens/
In a revealing post on his X account, the founder and CEO of NordMotion, Oluwatobi Ajayi, described how a Nigerian bank turned down a prospective oil‑and‑gas sector client who had expressed interest in purchasing two locally assembled “Max” pick‑up trucks from Nord.
Ajayi says the firm’s team was informed that the bank “does not finance Made‑in‑Nigeria vehicles,” and went as far as suggesting that the customer opt for foreign brands instead.
According to Ajayi, the bank even pointed the customer towards brands that declare themselves as “Made‑in‑Nigeria” in filings with the Bureau of Public Procurement, thus creating a contradiction in its reasoning.
Ajayi described the incident as “yet another example of the needless sabotage and institutional bias against Nigerian manufacturers and assemblers” in the automotive sector.
He emphasised that his company is striving to produce world‑class vehicles in Nigeria, and argued that while public rhetoric supports a national industrialisation agenda, the financing system for indigenous manufacturing is actively undermining it.
In his words, “We cannot continue using Nigerian resources to strengthen foreign factories while starving our own indigenous companies of opportunities.”
NordMotion, which assembles vehicles in Nigeria, is among the companies the federal government has publicly encouraged.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment endorsed the brand and urged government agencies and the private sector to patronise Made‑in‑Nigeria products.
Ajayi framed the bank’s decision as not merely a missed opportunity for his firm, but as a matter of economic sabotage: “What sort of economic sabotage is this?” he asked, calling on policy‑makers to translate their support for local industry into real action, especially in finance.
The bank’s refusal to finance the Nord pick‑up is damaging not only job creation and skills development, he added, but also undermines the government’s stated objective of turning Nigeria into a $1 trillion economy.
Ajayi indicated that many local manufacturers like his are driven not purely by profit, but by “patriotism and belief in the long game.”
He warned that ongoing financing discrimination would erode Nigeria’s industrial base. “Every time we deny support for local production, we export jobs, skills, and economic growth that should belong here.”
He also pointed out a further dimension of unfairness. Some companies, he claims, pose as foreign but manufacture locally, gain government contracts, yet local producers who genuinely assemble in Nigeria are treated with scepticism. In his view this creates a distorted playing field for the automotive manufacturing sector.
As the automotive value chain in Nigeria seeks deeper local content and stronger indigenous brands, the refusal of a domestic bank to finance a Nigerian‑assembled vehicle raises urgent questions for policy‑makers, regulators and financiers about how committed the system truly is to local manufacturing.
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