Revisiting The Ban on Fairly Used Vehicles
The ban imposed by the federal government on the importation of faily used vehicles above the ages of five, was meant to sanitise the inflow of scrap vehicles into the country and to check the
high rate of road accidents resulting from incessant break down of vehicles on our streets and highways due to over aging.
The imposition of this embargo did not go down well with the people. Those whose only chance of owning a car is dependent mainly on used vehicles popularly called “Tokunbo”, those whose main
source of livelihood depends on sales of used vehicles, and as well as those bring in the vehicles – the importers who make up a greater percentage of auto business in the country and a major employer of labour.
Before the ban, it is been argued that used cars were affordable to both the low level and middle class civil servants, as you can purchase a used car which is within the ages of eight and
twelve years from between N250,000.00 to N400,000.00 depending on the make of the car. Majority of the vehicles on our roads fall within the class. The impact of the embargo on the people will be very high. Prices of fairly used vehicles of not less than five
years currently go for between N800,000.00 and N1.5 million
This price rance will effectively remove fairly used vehicles out of the reach of the low and middle class civil servant, and
will not only worsen the already bad transportation system, it will destroy a thriving fairly used vehicle business.
The president of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, Alhaji Sani Shittu has called for a review of the ban to ten years as against five years imposed by the government.
Likewise, the president of the Association of Importers of Fairly Used Vehicles Mr. Chris Akpoguma, has also added his voice expressing fair that the ban will lead to the collapse of the Fairly Used Vehicle sub-sector, and the loss of huge investments already
sunked in the industry.
The recent move by President Olusegun Obasanjo in calling on the Ministry of Finance to converge all stakeholders in the industry and to come up with an acceptable age for importation of fairy
used vehicle policy in the country is a step in the right direction. It is been expected that by this move, there is hope that a review of the policy is in the offing.
A revisit and subsequent review of the ban will be a welcome development. The
federal government should endeavour to carry out broad-based consultations with industry operatives before going to the press with such policies, because it portrays the government policy makers in bad light as inarticulate and impulsive. This is not good for
the image of the country, especially at this time when everything is being done to spot light Nigeria’s investment opportunities to the international community.
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