Nigerians Spent N194.8bn On Second-Hand Cars, Motorcycles, Bicycles In 3 Months

Amidst calls for increased patronage for made-in-Nigeria car brands, Nigerians spent close to N200bn in the third quarter of 2022 on fairly used cars, motorcycles and auxiliary cycles.

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed that a total of N194.8bn was spent on the imports of fairly used vehicles, motorcycles and cycles fitted with an auxiliary motor.

This is a rise compared to the N83bn spent on used cars sourced from the United States (N79.66bn) and Italy (N4.33bn).

Nigeria has indigenous car makers with notable names like Innoson Motors, Nord Automobile and Stallion Motors.

But penetrating the Nigerian market has been an big issue, the manufacturers have occasionally admitted.

The NBS said, “Manufactured goods mainly imported were ‘Used Vehicles, with diesel or semidiesel engine, of cylinder capacity >2500cc’ from The United States of America and Italy worth N75.15 billion and N3.27billion, followed by ‘Filters’ from China and United Arab Emirates valued at N56.66 billion, N0.99 billion respectively.

“Motorcycles and cycles fitted with an auxiliary motor, petrol fuel, capacity >50<250cc, CKD’ was also imported from India (N37.89 billion) and China (N21.74 billion).”

The duty on the import of vehicles remains 35 per cent.

The federal government had concluded plans to slash the levy to be paid on imported cars from 35 per cent to five per cent based on the Finance Act.

The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, linked the decision to the rising cost of transportation which is influencing inflation.

Spending on importing used vehicles rose by 12.6 per cent to N617.48bnin 2021 from N548bnin 2020

Between 2015 and 2020, Nigerians imported 400,000 vehicles.