The National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) has said that private companies have so far invested N500 billion into the automotive sector to set up assembly plants.

The Director General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NADDC, Jelani Aliyu, while revealing this at the agency’s 1st quiz competition in Abuja at the weekend, said the money would be used to set up related factories for production and assembly of vehicles .

He clarified that the private companies who made the investment have also started to assemble auto gas vehicles.

Jelani while speaking on the essence of the quiz said it is meant to spur the interest of young Nigerians in venturing into the automative world.

“The earlier we engage and support young Nigerians in primary and secondary schools to further understand automotive world and technology, the better they will make the good decision to go into that field and study automotive engineering or design management.

“We believe that this is crucial to begin to get the students thinking and read more about it and boost that type of learning in schools, so that they can choose a course in the automotive sector and add value to that industry and for the nation,” he said.

The schools that participated in the quiz competition wre the Government Secondary School, Kuje , School of the Gifted, Gwagwalada, Pace Setters Academy and Faith Academy in Abuja .

At the end of the quiz, Government Secondary School, Kuje emerge the winner with 64 1/2 marks, followed by School of the Gifted which came Second with 54 marks, while Pace Setters Academy took the Third position with 53 marks and Faith Academy took the Fourth position with 52 marks.

One of the student, Sanusi Mohammed from GSS, Kuje lauded the NADDC for the competition, saying that the competition has increased his knowledge in the automotive line of learning.