The story of Nigeria’s manufacturing sector cannot be complete without references to shutdowns and exits. Dunlop Nigeria Plc and Michelin Nigeria Limited were among the first tyre manufacturers in Nigeria, starting operations shortly after independence in the early 1960s. They established local tyre manufacturing outfits in Lagos (Dunlop) and Port Harcourt (Michelin).

At their peak, they both accounted for about 75 percent of Nigeria’s tyre market, producing around 2.25 million tyres annually, reports said.

By the late 2000s, both plants stopped local production. While Michelin shut down in 2007, Dunlop closed shop in 2008, basically because of high production costs, infrastructural issues like unreliable power, and reduced import tariffs that made foreign tyres cheaper

Economy Post spoke with an executive of Dunlop, who admitted that the company, which is now DN Tyres & Rubber Plc, had gone into importation of tyres mainly from Europe.

Similarly, French tyre manufacturing giant Michelin is back to the Nigerian market, but not as a manufacturer. Though it says it never exited the Nigerian market, what is, however, clear is that it stopped manufacturing in Port Harcourt in 2007.

“It’s true that after the shutdown, many Nigerians thought Michelin had left the country,” said Managing Director and Vice President of Sales for Michelin Sub-Saharan Africa, Mr Amaury Vadon, in an interview with TechCabal in October 2025. “But Michelin never truly left. We may have stopped manufacturing, but we remained commercially active and are now more present than ever before.”

He said Michelin was not basically in Nigeria this time as an importer or distributor. “We still have employees in the country. That’s a key difference. We believe in having people who can explain our value, our innovation, and why Michelin products matter.”

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“We see strong potential not only in Lagos but also in Abuja and Port Harcourt,” Mr Vadon explained. “We’re already setting up partnerships and local stock in Abuja to reduce delivery times and better serve customers.”

Why Michelin, Dunlop exited manufacturing

No matter what the salesman for Michelin says, the truth is the company no more manufactures tyres in Nigeria. It exited the Nigerian manufacturing market in 2007 owing to the tough business environment.

Michelin’s exit from Nigeria’s tyre manufacturing sector wasn’t because the company wanted to abandon the market entirely, rather it was a strategic response to tough economic and operating conditions at the time.

Both tyre makers were hard hit by high production costs fuelled by extremely unreliable and expensive power supply. Tyre manufacturing requires a consistent, steady electrical supply, but frequent outages caused losses and inefficiencies for both tyre makers.

There were also policy inconsistencies as tariff changes reduced import duties on tyres, opening the door to large volumes of cheap imports, particularly from Asia. This made locally produced tyres much more expensive to sell and harder to compete with.

The influx of used (‘tokunbo’) and low-cost tyres crowded the market and eroded demand for premium domestic products, traders said.

One of the leaders of the African Tyre Village, Lagos International Trade Fair Complex, Badagry Expressway, Mr Chris Uzoma Okolo, told The Sun in 2019 that that the vacuum left by both Michelin and Dunlop had not been filled.

He said the condition that made them leave Nigeria had not been addressed, noting that this had also led to other companies relocating from the country.

He revealed that Michelin and Dunlop tyres now on sale in Nigeria were being imported from Ghana where they relocated.

“The challenges of bringing them in from the ports is harrowing. That is why we are begging government to see if there is a way Michelin and Dunlop would be persuaded to come back to Nigeria. The vacuum their exit created has not been filled. We are still pained by their exit. The worst of all is that they relocated to a neighbouring country, that is, Ghana, and still we call ourselves the giant of Africa. Even now that I am talking to you, the condition that made them relocate out of Nigeria has not been addressed. That is why there has not been efforts to fill the vacuum in the industry,” he said.

Nigerian manufacturers are hard hit by high cost of alternative power supply, poor infrastructure and high cost of funds. In addition to them, policy inconsistencies and poor gridlocks contribute to making life hard for real sector players.

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