Saturday, August 8, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
TRADE: Calling All Nigerians – Buy A Used Car Now!
Toye Olori
- Government budgets are usually no reason for celebration, but one week after the announcement of the 1998 budget for Nigeria, people have started to see some benefits.
Since the government announced last week that the Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) and Import Duty Reports (IDR) on imported second- hand vehicles are no longer required, the prices of used cars have dropped at major sales outlets.
The IDR and PSI were required to show that second-hand goods entering the country had been inspected in the country of purchase. Minister of Finance Anthony Ani abolished this requirement when announcing the budget breakdown, and car dealers have lowered prices in a bid to cut their losses.
A quick survey around Lagos by IPS revealed that vehicles which sold for 350,000 naira before the budget, are now going for 280,000 naira and 300,000 naira. And the price of commuter buses, which cost 600,000 naira late last year, has been slashed to 450,000 naira. One U.S. Dollar is equivalent to about 75 naira.
“The price cut, though uneconomical, becomes necessary as a measure to sell off vehicles now in stock, to reduce great losses later when vehicles affected by the new policy start arriving in the country,” says Alalere Oluwa, a car dealer.
Taiwo Bakare, another businessman, predicts that the car sales will get a big boost now that the IDR has been removed.
“It is a good thing that the IDR has been removed. It became too cumbersome for our vehicles to stay months at the port with mounting demurrage (fine paid for failure to unload goods within time allowed) before clearance, which is why the prices were high,” Bakare explains.
“But with the new policy, cars will be less expensive and Nigerians can afford them and our sales are surely going to increase,” he adds.
Custom agents are also happy.
“The abolition of the Pre-Shipment Inspection of goods and the removal of the age restriction on used vehicles will halt the illegal importation of automobiles into the country,” the Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents said in a statement.
The Council’s chairman, Lucky Amiwero, said he proposed phase out of the PSI and the abolishing of the age limit imposed on used vehicles since 1995, would encourage importers to ship their vehicles through Nigerian ports.
Most vehicle importers resorted to routing their imports through neighbouring countries’ ports and then driving the vehicles through land borders to escape the PSI and IDR requirements.
In 1995, the Nigerian government prohibited the importation of vehicles more than eight-years old from the date of manufacture in a bid to stop the bringing in of unroadworthy vehicles.
The IDR was made compulsory for all categories of vehicles in 1996, as part of measures to ensure that high-quality vehicles were imported into the country.
According to Amiwero, government revenue from the sales of used vehicles would now be enhanced with the new measures, as the illegal importation of the prohibited vehicles would stop.
“The steps will go a long way to increase vehicle traffic at the ports, especially at the ‘Roll-on Roll-off’ terminal”, built for handling automobiles, Amiwero says.
He also agrees that the prices of vehicles would now drop as importers would no longer pay the agents for goods inspected, and the demurrage incurred on vehicles at the port due to the delay in the issuance of IDR by the pre-shipment inspection agents, would no longer occur.
Print
|
TRADE: Calling All Nigerians – Buy A Used Car Now!
Toye Olori
- Government budgets are usually no reason for celebration, but one week after the announcement of the 1998 budget for Nigeria, people have started to see some benefits.
(more…)
Print
|
TRADE: Calling All Nigerians – Buy A Used Car Now!
Toye Olori
- Government budgets are usually no reason for celebration, but one week after the announcement of the 1998 budget for Nigeria, people have started to see some benefits.
(more…)
Print
|
