Nigerian Governments Ends Import Of Tokunbo Cars

The federal government has begun the phasing out of used cars (otherwise known as “tokunbo”) which may lead to the eventual stoppage of importation of used cars into the country.

The move, which received the nod of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday, was contained in a new National Automotive Policy which was endorsed in a meeting chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House.


Announcing the decision after the FEC meeting, minister of industry, trade and investment Olusegun Aganga said the policy,  which was  drawn over the last nine months with  the input of the National Automotive Council (NAC) and foreign car manufacturers such as Toyota, Nissan and Honda,  would encourage local manufacturing of vehicles and enforce a gradual phasing out of used cars.

Briefing journalists alongside his information and FCT counterparts Labaran Maku and Senator Bala Mohammed, Aganga said the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) would kick off a new vehicle car registration/tracking system in the next two weeks to check the smuggling of used cars into the country.

He said that the federal government  was worried  that with the country spending a whopping  $4.2 billion (about N550billion) on the importation of cars in 2010, and $3.4 billion on the item in 2012, car importation was almost head-to–head  with machinery as  the biggest consumer of the country’s foreign reserves.

Aganga said government would encourage banks to operate vehicle purchase schemes to enable Nigerians to buy cars on easy terms with payment in installments.

He informed  that government would put  in place appropriate tariff regimes to discourage car importation and encourage local manufacturing.
The minister said that government’s projection was that, with strict implementation of the policy, a brand new car locally produced would sell for less than N1.5 million.

He said the policy when fully implemented would also create a minimum of 700,000 job opportunities


Aganga said countries such as South Africa, India and Brazil had successfully operated the policy.