There is something significant about seeing locally assembled buses operating at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos. Such activity is more than the movement of passengers from one point to another; it also demonstrates that local automotive manufacturing can intersect directly with aviation infrastructure.
At Nigeria’s principal international gateway, the combination of locally made buses and imported ones has become a rolling statement about what the country’s automotive industry can produce when local capacity is matched with institutional demand.
Looking inwards, what the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), led by its efficient administrator, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, has done in managing the ground transportation at the international airport is a right step in the right direction. The choice of locally assembled buses, therefore, deserves to be viewed beyond the ordinary procurement of airport vehicles.
For an industry that has spent years battling foreign-exchange constraints, high production costs, limited local content and uncertainty over policy direction, putting Made-in-Nigeria buses to work at an international airport is both commercially and symbolically important.
Some of these buses were assembled locally by Lanre Shittu Motors Limited (LSM), a Nigerian automotive company whose Managing Director, Mr Taiwo Shittu, recently used the opportunity of an oversight visit by the Governing Board of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) to highlight the significance of the project.
His message was clear as he pleaded that local manufacturers need institutional customers willing to demonstrate confidence in what they produce. This is exactly what FAAN had done to one of the oldest car manufacturing company in the country.
Speaking on some of their buses at the airport, Mr Shittu proudly said: ‘If you go to the airport, the buses are there now,’ emphasising that the buses operating at MMIA were assembled locally by his company.
That matters because airports are not ordinary operating environments. Vehicles deployed there are subjected to intensive utilisation, operational demands and public visibility. Consequently, a locally assembled bus working at an international airport provides a practical test of domestic manufacturing capability.
It also gives passengers, foreign visitors and aviation stakeholders arriving in Nigeria an immediate encounter with a Nigerian-made product. This is where FAAN’s procurement decision acquires a broader industrial-policy dimension.
The airport Authority is not merely putting buses on the tarmac. It is, whether by design or through procurement requirements, creating a market for domestic automotive production. Such institutional demand can help manufacturers plan production, sustain employment, develop supply chains and justify further investment in assembly capacity.
That is an important consideration for public institutions such as FAAN. Procurement should not end when a vehicle is delivered. Availability of spare parts, trained technicians, maintenance infrastructure and lifecycle support ultimately determine whether an investment delivers value over time.
This is where the ‘Nigeria First policy’ must go beyond the ceremonial purchase of locally assembled vehicles. If government agencies are encouraged to patronise Nigerian-made vehicles, manufacturers must equally be required to demonstrate measurable standards in quality, reliability, maintenance and after-sales support.
The relationship should therefore, be reciprocal: government creates predictable demand and policy stability, while manufacturers deepen local content, improve quality and maintain robust support networks.
Be that as it may, every time one of those buses moves through the airport, it carries more than passengers. It carries a question about Nigeria’s industrial priorities: whether government institutions will continue to provide a dependable market for domestic manufacturers, and whether manufacturers will respond by steadily increasing local content and technological capability.
FAAN’s choice of locally made buses at Lagos Airport should therefore be seen not merely as a transport decision, but as a small yet practical test of Nigeria’s resolve to build an automotive industry around local production.
The real success of that choice will ultimately be measured not by the fact that the buses are Made in Nigeria, but by how well they perform, how long they remain operational, how much of their value chain is Nigerian and whether their success encourages more institutional demand for locally produced vehicles.
In the case of LSM specifically, some of the above challenges seem to have been addressed as assured by the MD, Mr Taiwo.
According to him, beyond assembly, the auto firm sources some components locally, including seals, lubricants and rubber products from Kano and Ogun.
The company also maintains spare parts warehouses in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, supported by trained engineers to strengthen after-sales service and vehicle availability.
It is therefore expected that other vehicle assemblers will increasingly adopt similar strategies
For aviation, the LSM buses at MMIA can therefore represent more than passenger transport. They offer a visible example of how local procurement, automotive manufacturing and private investment can support Nigeria’s aviation infrastructure.