This is wickedness.

The issue is, how many Nigerians can afford a brand new car?
Is Nigerian roads motorable enough, to encourage so much money to be spent on cars?

GEJ and his team are just clueless,

GEJ just save your money and energy dont dream of 2015....

What good development are we talking about here. Does Nigeria have any local Automobile company?

shortgun:
Did you just said you are looking for someone to sell your problematic jalopy to?
You are d wicked one here not d car.
@Govt needs to strengthen the local industry first or else they will only have succeeded in making smuggling a more lucrative business, we all know d state of our borders

Wait a minute bro, so is now a crime for somebody to sell his property in this country? Mind you,I bought that car with money I didn't steal the car o. Maybe someone who has better ideas of managing such problematic cars like some taxi drivers could buy it from me. U dey advice mek I throway am? If buyer no come I go carry go mgbuka market

Burger01:

O'boi, check with your village people first. Seems like you're being doctored by your village people. Please go beg them.

Witch dey chop motor? Motor get blood?

A-ZeD:

The kind of backward reasoning displayed by the FG is mind bogging.
How many cars are produced locally?
How many people can afford a brand new car?

Chai... This is serious. Innoson had better come up with more beautiful cars.
Aganga should be talking about financing or mortgage in inclusion to this...

chidindufrank: Wait a minute bro, so is now a crime for somebody to sell his property in this country? Mind you,I bought that car with money I didn't steal the car o. Maybe someone who has better ideas of managing such problematic cars like some taxi drivers could buy it from me. U dey advice mek I throway am? If buyer no come I go carry go mgbuka market

Please just ignore him. Some people's limited reasoning don't allow them analyze facts properly before they type.

This Gej government self.They don't sit down and reason the implications of their policy before they start the implementation. You ve not produced even a tyre in Nigeria, u are talking of raising d tariff of tokunbo vehicles. Look at Dunlop and Michelin tyres that were formerly produced in Nigeria, where are they today. High cost of production occasioned by the govt failure to address the electricity problem had driven them out of Nigeria.They should ve started this automotive policy first and start rolling out made in Nigeria vehicles before trying to ban tokunbo vehicles.We Will resist in totality any obnoxious policy that will further create hardship for the citizenry. This govt is too elitist.

ifyalways: Fayawo and customs people go smile this Christmas.

na so ooo, we go resume cotonou runs ....

V/Kasparov:
Motorcycles (used and unused) are banned in most States in the north for security reasons. This forced the common man to fall back on tokunbo vehicles as a last resort. I feel it is unfair for the Govenment to now make them less afordable especially since the local car manufacturing industry is not really functioning. Besides, how many people can aford these brand new locally made cars? Well, I guess the only option now left for the masses is to start pushing donkey carts.

Don't mind them. Putting the cart before the horse.

A-ZeD:

The kind of backward reasoning displayed by the FG is mind bogging.
How many cars are produced locally?
How many people can afford a brand new car?

my thought exactly. jona's level of confusion is alarming...

chidindufrank: Good move, I bought a tukunbo car in 2010 as I'm writing now the Jezzeble is still drying my pocket with its numerous problems. I better save and buy new car than tukunbo. Looking seriously for someone to sell this jalopy to.

u went n bght motor nt car and is the cheapst one u bght, so tukunbo car is vry nice, i ve 3 n am enjoyn it.

freezy: More Comments:

Kabolobari Benakole
• 40 minutes ago

The move will make imported cars more expensive thus, promoting the purchase of locally manufactured vehicles.

Punch sounds like it supports this move. Really, I personally think it lousy! It's not about tarriff as it's about electricity availability! Besides it's not federal government that makes the industry. It's technology that does. If there's no native Nigeria auto tech or improvement thereof, raise the tarriff as high as anything and we'll all need to jump up on the unavailable trains!

orjiakors
• 44 minutes ago

If the new govt policy is meant to encourage indigenous vehicle manufacturing, increase output and enhance the quality of fully made in Nigeria cars, fine and welcome.
But if the policy is meant to encourage foreign manufacturing companies like Toyota, Peugeot, Mercedes, Ford, Tata, Opel, Volkswagen, etc., come to Nigeria to establish assembly plants, then Nigeria's govt has taken a reverse policy, a backward policy, as far as automotive development and manufacturing in Nigeria are concerned.

Nigeria has had some of the above named automotive companies assembling their vehicles in Nigeria for decades, how far did they impart their technology of vehicle production on Nigerians? To what degree did their assembly activities positively influence Nigeria's economy?

In the recent past, India's Tata manufactured a very good car that sold for US $2000. If indigenous vehicle assembly plants and prospective vehicle manufacturing companies in Nigeria are not subjected to suffocating competition from foreign cars assembling companies in Nigeria, before long, Nigeria's indigenous car manufacturing companies can replicate the Indian Tata feat of bringing up brand new good cars that may sell as low as 1.2 million Naira

Okiri
• 2 hours ago

Hmn! All roads leads to Cotonou! customs, police and other are in for brisk business

chris
• 2 hours ago
⚑Nig govt. is very wicked wish local manufacturer did we have

Kublai
• 4 hours ago

What feasibility study?you people are are not ready to govern.please tell us which cars are manufactured locally at present?

mike usa
• 7 hours ago

hope,you are okay, minister of industry, hope you about to eat your own money, from the poor nigerians, let me tell you, if you do it, God we help you, but rember, that if any penny, received to your pocket, from those, company, God is looking at you, and l know this is another opportunity, for your friends in crime, of the nigeria mate, you guys continue, but one day, your air we come down.


^^^

Errr... What exactly is this Mike usa guy trying to say?

if this Mike USA don't have anything to say,better close that mouth of yours. OMG, is this guy schooled at all?

To sustain a 100% Nigeria auto manufacturing unit, one virtually has to own a power generating company. This policy can only help foreign car companies sell more, provide corrupt politicians with more loot, and enable smugglers earn more.

Good policy, wrongly timed and applied. Any percentage increase in tariff should be on ALL vehicles, at a time when Nigeria starts producing a reasonable quantity of cars.

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Questions dat must be asked before rolling out this policy.
1) will govt officials patronize this so called made in nigeria vehicles?
2) do we have enough electricity to power the so called plants
3) do we have functional steel plants that will roll out steel for the plants?
4) do we have a middle class in nigeria?
5) how does the govt intend to stop smuggling?
I still have a thousand more questions to ask but I would want one GEJ spokesman to help in answering these questions first

They should start from tokumbo aircraft.

Wouldn't it be better if the government subsidize the local car industry first thus, making them effective and competitive enough before introducing this?

Oh well....

stebell: @ OP, yu caption dis story as wicked. I wanna ask yu aint yu tired of using 2nd hand goods like shoes, clothes, cars etc. I wanna believe yu still use 2nd hand electronics.
Think new and be renewed.
Wat de govt has done is jus to encourage our economy.

the goverment should ban 2nd hand plane first

Sometimes I wonder if this govt is half serious abt transforming this country by increasing the tariff import tax or customs duty u r indirectly increasing the cost of the car which is the idea to deter importers but this is not wht the Nigerian ailing iron n steel industry needs wht we need is a deliberate aggressive approach something like total ban on car importation that will sharply revitalize our manufacturing industry or force this automobile companies to set up factories in our. Country due to the market.

#TeamINNOSON..
Can someone tell me the cars in their lineup.

oguash: Questions dat must be asked before rolling out this policy.
1) will govt officials patronize this so called made in nigeria vehicles?
2) do we have enough electricity to power the so called plants
3) do we have functional steel plants that will roll out steel for the plants?
4) do we have a middle class in nigeria?
5) how does the govt intend to stop smuggling?
I still have a thousand more questions to ask but I would want one GEJ spokesman to help in answering these questions first

Indeed good policies but wrongly timed.. There just isnt a right way of doing the wrong thing. Period!

bigshow123: Why wil FG not try and fix power first b4 comin up wit dis policy. Car manufacturin plants is not a yorghurt company where u can use generators to operate. Power must be on 24/7. Always puttin d cart b4 d horse

Isn't power been fixed now? We complain too much in this country. Or, every other Govt plan/policy should be put at abeyance until Nigeria generates 20,000MW? Doesn't it make much more Strategic sense to pursue these important paths together, although with few of them taking some priority over others?

Me thinks this is a very well thought out policy. And timely too.

INNOSON and Co would surely be happy for it; and, so would we with the jobs and associated opportunities that would ensue if the policy is well implemented

During the mid 90s the FG limited the age of the car that could be brought in this all came about when it was alleged that PAN had an influence in this decision.

Now we all could smell a rat

The Lion assembled in France will always be better that the one assembled in Kaduna

Raise the tariff we will still afford to buy them. I like my machine to be assembled in Germany.

The Federal Government is a confused entity, I bet yoi they don't know what they are doing. May God have mercy on us.

Dreal1247: Dis is a welcomed development. Though the local producers av 2 be adequately financed to meet up with the local demand.

Shut up.. Do you know cost of a gen set? Tell your govt to fix power

Hmmm, First double the tarrif on imported Cowboy Caps.
By the way, how many Nigerian made cars are in the presidential fleet?

While unpopular I am with the government on this one, they are not stopping you from bringing in the tokumbo cars, but you will have to pay to get them.

When government did the same thing with clothes a few years ago people screamed, yet look at that sector now in Nigeria it's booming.

Until the government made a move like this the automotive industry would never improve. The next step is for the government to stop using foreign produced cars, thereby directly funding the local industry. Can you imagine the sales of innoson if all the arms of government used only their cars?

And like all things in life, you get better with experience, innoson is a relatively new company, yet their new buses are quite good, so imagine where they can/will be in 10 years.

This is by FAR the most STUPID, IMBECILIC and M0R0NIC thing the Federal Government has done in the past year.

Nigeria is struggling with masses of old, decrepit cars with poor fuel consumption, high pollution rating and poor safety features. The Number 1 target for the FG (in lieu of enough local production of popular cars) should be a drastic reduction of import tariffs on modern tokunbo and the drastic reduction in import duties on new cars. Innoson motors is just starting, has vehicles that are largely unpopular and have yet to sway the buying public.

Jonathan's Government continues to lurch from one bad, anti-people decision to another, and at this point you'd have to be really crazy to defend this latest travesty. This position is totally indefensible and should be condemned by anyone with a functional brain.

NEVER will I vote for this clown in 2015. anybody else has to be better than him.

freezy: Comments from Punch Readers:

Afam
• 9 hours ago

Cabals have prevailed,just like they did in cements has the price come down since then? no..FG kept on putting more pressure on lower class..how of those manufacturers will meet the demands?


okonjjo iwealla
• 8 hours ago

Another evidence the govt is broke. they want more money&they are raising it through several means. Car plate number, bcmr , driver's license, now another tariff tokunbo car tariff. Yet they reject the notion of being labeled as a BROKE govt. God save Nigeria

mohinder
• 3 hours ago

ignorance at the highest level, let start producing cars before you increase the import tariff


Adetayo Adewale Adebowale
• 5 hours ago

Nigerian government functionaries always come up with genuine ideas but operates withouth strategy,how can Nigeria ban importation of Used cars from Manufacturing economies when Nigeria is not even ready and equipped to generate enough energy/power(electricity) to drive manufacturing, apart from raw material,electricity to power industies is next ingredient for a sustainable industrialization, Nigeria continues to flare it natural gas resources. Can we continue to cry corruption or can we just say successive Nigerian governments are wasteful? Nigeria can not even generate and supply enough electricity for domestic consumption to talk of do industries. Almost every household in Nigeria have an electric power generator. Common Nigerian government give us a break you guys are thieves period. (Adetayo Adewale Adebowale . New York).

Sunday Njokede
• 14 minutes ago

To start with: where is the electricity to power this ‘new industrialisation’? Liars! And again, is there functional Middle Class in Nigeria who would buy these cars and move the economy forward. Are workers going to use 18 thousand Naira Minimum Wage to pay a whopping N1.2m and N1.5m. Naira car? How long would they save 18 thousands before getting N1.2m? Would Nigerians drive their cars in their dead graves?

Without electricity, good roads and others it’d be very difficult. And besides which middle class would buy them? There is no Middle Class in Nigeria. Nigeria has two strata: rich and poor – not the rich who power the economy but the middle class.

The tariff on imported cars is high enough. Government should not steep it up more so. We are waiting for you people 2015 presidential election. We are voting Jonathan out. This policy is unnecessary strain on the poor who tries to buy car.



emeka
• 8 minutes ago

all of you commenting on this blog are stupid. who told u we don't have local manufacturers like INNOSON, IVECO TRUCKS,ASHOK LEYLAND etc. Don't u know that when they are empowered, they have the capacity to produce jobs in their millions and add value to the economy. South Africa has all the worlds' motor brands assembly plant in their country. do u know how significant that is?

Emeka, no country in the world bans imported used cars, even the United States that have many car manufacturing companies, Germany with their numerous car manufacturing companies still allow used cars from other countries. Not everybody can afford the new cars. You Nigerians easily buy these false government economical theories. They say different thing and do opposite. It s a pity that GEJ is allowing himself to be deceived by the people who are not happy to see him reelected.

There are many things the federal government should first of all ban, 1: Generators if they are serious in their power transformation 2: Private jets which are the causes of the monthly plane crashes in Nigeria. 3: Foreign medical treatment because they are fairly used medical ideologies too, if they want to encourage our local medical practitioners. 5: Foreign education too because our local institutions should be encouraged too. Why only the business that helps the poor masses that the government always ban?

Locally produced cars should be encouraged but not in this regards, why rushing the ban while the local car producing companies are not well funded? How would you cope the demand of the cars when the produced cars are not yet enough for the demand?

How much is the salary of the workers in Nigeria to purchase new cars of Millions of naira? Common we should first walk before we think of running. This is one of the policies that would deny GEJ his second tenure if will conduct a free and fair election in Nigeria, his regime is fast becoming an anti people government.

No country bans goods they don't produce 95% of it, Nigeria will not grow over night. Stop the importation of the 18 century trains and rail lines first. GEJ honestly i am doubting your capability in ruling this country