After prolonged period of suspense and series of stakeholder engagements on how to stimulate local auto assembly, the Federal Government Monday, announced ban on the importation of both new and used vehicles into the country through land borders with effect from January 1, 2017.
According to a statement issued Monday by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) public relations officer, Wale Adeniyi, on behalf of Hameed Ali, comptroller-general, NCS, the ban is sequel to a presidential directive restricting all vehicle imports to Nigeria sea ports only.
With this latest directive, the order takes effect from the first day of January 2017.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government has directed that “importers of vehicles through the land borders are requested to utilise the grace period up till 31st December 2016, to clear their vehicle imports landed in neighbouring Ports.” Prior to the Monday statement outrightly banning importation of vehicles through land borders, government had earlier mulled the idea of increasing tariff on all imported cars, both new and old, from 20 percent to 70 percent when it introduced the new automotive policy in September 2013, to encourage local production of automobiles.
The ban is coming on the heels of several calls by stakeholders to increase the tariff on used cars in order to encourage the growth of the local auto industry.
Automakers recently, at a forum, said the delay in imposing the second phase of 35 percent tariff on imported used vehicles was adversely affecting their investment in auto assembly plants and the growth of the industry.
While others argue that there are some steps government should have taken, like instituting a low-cost vehicle purchase scheme before the ban rather than introducing a policy that will inflict pain on its citizen.
Aminu Jalal, director-general, National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), had earlier posited that Nigerians buy used vehicles largely because they were cheap, adding that most of the used vehicles had no integrity and carried a lot of safety and environmental hazards.
He had argued that money used by Nigerians to buy used vehicles could be made as down payments for new cars assembled locally.
