Ban On Land Border Import: Car Dealers Warn Of Massive Job Loss, Revenue
The Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON), has sounded the alarm that the proposed ban on land border imports of cars by the federal government was a recipe for massive job loss and revenue, urging that ban be reversed.
The Federal Government had proposed a ban on cars through the land borders with effect from January 2017.
President of AMDON, Ajibola Adedoyin, in a statement warned that members of the association numbering about two million, import about 15,000 fairly used cars through the land borders every quarter.
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“From the land borders only, the federal government makes more than N100 billion yearly, not to talk about the sea ports. We are talking of so much revenue to be lost.
“That’s why we feel as stakeholders, we needed to be carried along in this policy so that we can be able to tell the government there are some inherent things that needed to be done before this policy is implemented,” Adedoyin said.
The AMDON said that though they were in support of Nigeria becoming a hub of car manufacturing in Africa, “the process of getting that done will hurt the economy so much and disenfranchise people.
We are not talking about our members alone. The general public will feel the pinch so much.”
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He further stated that, “More than 95% of buses and cars used in public transport are bought from AMDON members and cost less than vehicles cleared through sea ports.
“The least assembled-in-Nigeria is N3m. How many Nigerians can afford that. That’s to say for the next three years there’s no average Nigerian that can buy a car,” the AMDON chairman lamented.
“With what government buys, assemblers are unable to satisfy that market how much more the whole of the Nigerian market.”
