• Senate advances the Electric Vehicle Transition and Green Mobility Bill.
• Draft law requires foreign automakers to partner locally and assemble in Nigeria.
• EV makers must meet local content rules, licensing conditions, and penalties.

Nigeria is anchoring its transition to electric vehicles in a strategy centered on national industrial integration, as the Senate approved the “Electric Vehicle Transition and Green Mobility Bill” in a second reading. The bill aims to establish a national legal framework to support the shift from combustion engines to electric mobility.

Local media reported on November 20 that the country intends to regulate the entry of foreign automakers by requiring local partnerships, domestic assembly, and sourcing from Nigerian suppliers. For the first time in this sector, the bill introduces measures similar to the local content rules applied in the national oil and gas industry.

According to these reports, the bill requires foreign manufacturers to work with a registered Nigerian company and to set up an assembly plant within three years of entering the market. It also sets a minimum local integration level, with at least 30% of sourcing from suppliers based in Nigeria by 2030.

Automakers will also need a license confirming their operational capacity to produce at least 5,000 electric vehicles per year domestically. These requirements come with penalties, including fines of up to 250 million naira (about $156,000) for failing to meet local partnership rules and 500 million naira (around $312,000) for unauthorized imports.

Although the electric vehicle industry could theoretically benefit from the removal of fuel subsidies in 2023, it still depends heavily on imports. The U.S. International Trade Administration notes that Nigeria relied on imported vehicles to meet demand, with an estimated market value of $130 million in 2024.

In comparison, the local assembly market was valued at around $100 million, largely based on imported kits. Dependence is even stronger for electric vehicles, which accounted for less than 1% of auto sales in the first half of 2025, according to data shared in July 2025 by the platform Focus2Move.