Association seeks regulation of importation of fairly used cars in Nigeria

By Folorunso Alagbede, Abuja

Concerned about lack of verifiable data on stolen cars in the country, the
President of the Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria, AMDON, Prince Ajibola Adedoyin has called for the regulation of import of fairly used cars.
Prince Adedoyin pointedly declared that there is the need to have government intervention by regulating the importation of fairly used vehicles only through licensed and registered car dealers in the country.
He argued that by so doing, the incidence of car theft or stolen cars will be greatly reduced.
Adedoyin explained that the present situation whereby anybody can import any brand of cars will make tracking of stolen cars difficult.
The AMDON president assured that if the association is empowered by a legislation, the issue of evading borders by unscrupulous members of the society would be checked
He therefore urged the government to forward a bill to the National Assembly so as to regulate importation of cars by curtailling rising incidence of stolen vehicles in the country.
While commending the government for the slash in tariff on imported commercial vehicles; he however, said it would be nice and profitable if the tariff slash is on all vehicles imported into the country.
According to him, “The decision to reduce the duties and tariff on imported vehicles that carry more than 10 persons from 35% to 5% was a welcome development”.
The AMDON president said the outcry and call for ban of ‘tokunboh’ vehicles by the Nigerian Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) and other Nigerian vehicle assemblers did not hold water.
He said as at now they have not been able to come up with a locally designed and produced car that will cost as much as N1.5 million.
Adedoyin said what the Nigerian Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) needs is remove most of the luxury accessories, design a good body, get the right engine and gearbox and other vital components that will make a good car meant for Nigerian type of climate and terrain
He added that the association will never stand against locally produced vehicles but insists that the approach must be transparent, sincere, logical and rational.
His words, “in the first instance, AMDON will never stand against any sincere attempt to make Nigeria a car manufacturing country. No, we will not do that. Rather, we are for it. We want Nigeria to become a vehicle manufacturing nation. It is our dream. It is what we want.
“Go and read the history of India’s auto industry. They started with tricycles and grew gradually. We can start small too and grow.
“Let’s not fool ourselves that we will jump into electric cars when we can’t produce tyres. After several years, we will come back to the basics,’ he noted.