The Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON) has challenged the Nigerian Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) and other Nigerian vehicle assemblers to come up with a locally designed and produced car within a price range of N1.5-N1.7 million.
Prince Ajibola Adedoyin,the National President of AMDON, who disclosed this in Abuja also implored the Federal Government to extend the reduction of 5 percent on imported vehicles to cars and minivans, saying they convey less than 10 persons, which make up the bulk of the vehicles used for intra-city and intercity transportation
He commended President Muhammadu Buhari and the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Hameed Ali for opening their ears to call for a tariff slash on imported vehicles, as a way of improving Nigerians’ livelihood and ultimately solving the transportation nightmare.
He said the decision to reduce the duties and tariff on imported vehicles that carry more than 10 persons from 35 percent to 5 percent was a welcome development.
He added: “It’s a welcome development. We’ve been at the forefront of this for some years now, trying to let the government know that there is a need to allow levies to be reduced on imported used vehicles. We’ve made several presentations to relevant authorities. In fact, in this part of our world, that is the only means of transportation accessible to over 200 million people and that is why it’s been part of our cry for the government to bring down the price of imported vehicles.
“The cars should be included in this tariff reduction. We are not making a case for luxurious ones. They shouldn’t have limited it to vehicles that can carry more than 10 persons.If you look at our roads, there are some vehicles that are used for commercial transportation that only carry six or seven passengers. These sorts of vehicles are widely used commercially. We are talking of Toyota Sienna, Volkswagen Sharon, and co. These vehicles are everywhere for commercial purposes. Even cars too”
