Federal Government efforts to discourage importation of vehicles through neighbouring countries may remain a mirage, as importers appear to have taken solace in the range of incentives offered by the Port of Cotonou in the Benin Republic.

It was gathered that the Autonomous Port of Cotonou has recently slashed its transit vehicle charges from CFA399,920 (N257,000) to CFA290,000 (N186,000) effective from July 1, 2017.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s import duty on imported vehicles remains astronomically high at 35 per cent, and another 35 per cent surcharge amounting to a total of 70 per cent on a cargo.

Experts have described this as one of the highest in the world, thereby discouraging the use of Nigerian ports. The Guardian investigations revealed that importers of Nigerian-bound vehicles and other cargoes prefer landing them at Cotonou and other neighbouring ports, and smuggling them into Nigeria through the porous borders, in order to avoid prohibitive tariffs charged by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

Despite Nigerian government’s ban on importation of vehicles through land borders, the volume of cars smuggled into the country from Cotonou through Seme, Idiroko, and other land borders has risen astronomically in the past four months.

This is even as the government of Benin Republic last month approved the reduction of charges on transit vehicles by 27 per cent, which happened six months after the Nigerian Government banned the importation of vehicles through the land borders.

Data obtained from the Autonomous Port of Cotonou showed that while the importation of cars in Cotonou reached an all-time low of just 3,500 units in January 2017, the volume of cars discharged there last month was well over 10,000 units.

Investigations showed that the volume of cars imported through the Autonomous Port of Cotonou in transit to Nigeria also recorded significant growth since March 2017.

A Senior Staff of a Shipping Line in Cotonou, Elisee Dieudonne, said: “We expect this reduction in prices in Cotonou will divert even more vehicles to the Benin Republic, while the volumes in Lagos will remain stagnant. From all indications, this figure is going to grow in the next month, as the naira is re-valued against the CFA, and more traders are patronising the port of Cotonou.”

She added: “The trend we’re seeing is that the old and crashed vehicles, which are paying comparatively low level of duties, are discharged in Lagos, while the newer and more expensive second-hand cars are discharged in Cotonou.”

President, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Increase Uche, said the port of Cotonou has slashed transit cost to attract Nigerian importers, as such, the Nigerian Government should also review the import duties if they are serious about making the seaports competitive.

According to him, about 80 per cent of those vehicle imported through Cotonou is smuggled into Nigeria without paying duty. “It is left for Nigeria to also reduce their duty in order to make it competitive, as we keep saying, the Customs duty is on the high side, they over value imports.

“Besides, the inconsistent policies are not helping matters. Importers will place an order for consignment and before it comes here, government policy may have created one problem or another and such importer might have borrowed the money from a bank to finance the transaction. The goods will incur demurrage, and the burden is too much and people continue to lose investment.

“All these are not good for our economy, we should also reduce the cost of importing through Nigerian seaports if actually, we want to make the ports competitive,” he said.


Source:
http://www.autoreportng.com/2017/08/fg-losses-revenue-on-cars-import-to.html

Lalasticlala, Seun, Mynd44

Whats your take on this?

I blame Buhari. You don't expect a dullard to understand the economics of trade. Even that Aunty Kemi is so daft that she failed a very simple arithmetic.
How can you charge 70% of the value of a car as import duties and expect importers to pay while you stifle economic activities with inept policies?

They know what to do, they keep wasting people's money with thier yeye ban. Only God knows how many cars dem go don sieze this year alone.

When you put dundee abokiii in charge

The reason for the high import duties/fees from Nigeria govt and NCS still baffles me till now. No wonder majority of people prefer going to cotonou to buy cars than tincan/apapa side.

It's not as if the government do not know this but greed/corruption has destroyed their brain that the only review they can think of is upward trend.

My friend bought a camry SE 2008 model (68,000 mileage, V6, leather, etc) for a total of N2.2m at cotonou which includes payment of all necessary documents but here in Nigeria with that features, it would cost minimum of N2.7m

Izz a simpu sturvs na....ok take an example
U go to market to buy bread and ask the prices from two shops: shop A #500.....shop B #300 from which shop will u buy??

This government have only succeeded in turning people to armed robbers, kidnappers, ritualists, and now they have also turned our hard working agents to smugglers all because of their policies

17.5M naira for just 2016 camry

Naija which way

effty:
I blame Buhari. You don't expect a dullard to understand the economics of trade. Even that Aunty Kemi is so daft that she failed a very simple arithmetic.
How can you charge 70% of the value of a car as import duties and expect importers to pay while you stifle economic activities with inept policies?

I'm not a Buhari fan, but I hope you know it was Okonjo Iweala, during Jonathan's tenure, who came up with that idea of increasing customs tariff to patch the economy, not Kemi. If you don't have enough information about a topic, please keep quiet.

When I always say Buhari is very short sighted this is exactly what i mean, this same man knows he doesnt have a viable local car industry on ground and he goes in to increase tarriff saying he wants to encourage local production and then forces the banks to increase lending rates as a fallout of poorly implemented TSA whuch automatically put any dream of local manufacture of cars on hold but Mr innoson keeps fighting to make the dream come alive only for Buhari to allow the EFCC needlessly go and hound the man foe nothing ..Buhari is a short sighted disaster jare

LagosCiti:


I'm not a Buhari fan, but I hope you know it was Okonjo Iweala, during Jonathan's tenure, who came up with that idea of increasing customs tariff to patch the economy, not Kemi. If you don't have enough information about a topic, please keep quiet.

They would have auctioned Nigeria by now. Thank God for change.

Desyner:
They would have auctioned Nigeria by now. Thank God for change.

I don't know about that and I'm not a ''change'' chanter either. I just gave a fact. I don't believe in Buhari's government because it's filled with the same set of old politicians. No remarkable ideas in Nigerian politics at the moment and I won't waste my youth singing praises of politicians who are more concerned about how much they can make rather than how to help improve lives and build infrastructures for the next generation.

I went to Benin republic last year to clear vehicle, honestly it's like going to ShopRite to buy fanta.

But come to Nigeria port, na war front. Custom looking for any means to swindle you.

LagosCiti:


I don't know about that and I'm not a ''change'' chanter either. I just gave a fact. I don't believe in Buhari's government because it's filled with the same set of old politicians. No remarkable ideas in Nigerian politics at the moment and I won't waste my youth singing praises of politicians who are more concerned about how much they can make rather than how to help improve lives and build infrastructures for the next generation.

I am not a change fanatic but appreciate its timely intervention in helping us out of a tight corner. Of course politicians are largely the same but I can't deny the slight improvement in leadership we enjoy.