Buhari Justifies Ban On Vehicle Importation Through Land Borders

[caption id="attachment_14582" align="alignnone" width="700"]President Muhammadu Buhari[/caption]

President Muhammadu Buhari has justified the Federal Government’s directive to ban the importation of vehicles through all land borders across the country.

The President who made this disclosure at the flag off of Eastern Vehicle Assembling Limited (EVAL) in Enugu over the weekend, said the move was necessary to encourage Nigerians to buy locally assembled vehicles.

“We are already fine tuning our procurement policy to support preferential purchase of local vehicles,” Buhari, who was represented by his Senior Special Adviser on Legal and Electoral Matters, Mrs. Juliet Ibekaku, said.

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“We are optimistic that in no distant time the support we are giving the automotive sector will generate more jobs and career employment for our young and teeming youths as well as drive the economy.”

The President also promised to support locally assembled vehicles by creating an enabling environment for production.

Also speaking, Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, said his government would support EVAL, by using its vehicles as official cars.

“We have placed emphasis on locally-made goods. We promise to make EVAL vehicles our official cars once the project takes off in Abia State,” Ikpeazu noted.

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Recall that the Federal Government had earlier announced a ban on the importation of all new and used vehicles into the country from January 1, 2017.

A statement by Mr. Wale Adeniyi, the spokesman for the Nigeria Customs Service read: “The ban is sequel to a Presidential directive restricting all vehicle imports to Nigerian seaports only.

“The order takes effect from Jan. 1, 2017.

“Importers of vehicles through the land borders are requested to utilise the grace period up till Dec. 31, 2016 to clear their vehicle imports landed in neighbouring ports.”

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