Jonathan lifts ban on cars older than 10 years
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Oluwakemi Dauda 30/11/2010 00:00:00
image Jonathan

The ban on the importation of vehicles older than 10 years has been lifted.

President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the extension of the age limit of used vehicles that can be imported from 10 years to 15 years.

Also removed from the import prohibition list are toothpicks, furniture, textile fabrics, lace, embroidered fabrics and made up garments.

The directive is contained in November a memo signed by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga .

Aganga said any vehicle that is manufactured 15 years ago is now free to enter the nation’s sea port for Customs clearance.

The memo reads: “This is to confirm the Mr President has granted approval for the underlisted products to be removed from the import prohibition list

The products are cassava, toothpicks, furniture, textile fabrics and articles thereof (African prints- (printed fabricks), lace and embroidered fabrics and made up garments.

“Furthermore, Mr President has approved an import duty rate of 10 per cent plus 10 per cent levy on Health and Energy drinks, such as Power Horse, Red Ginseng, which had been excluded from import prohibition and the extension of the age of used motor vehicles to be imported into the country from 10 to 15 years from the year of manufacture.”

The changes took effect from November 19.

http://thenationonlineng.net/web3/news/20369.html

So we can now import good olle cassava into Nigeria? From being the greastest cassava producer on planet earth to being an importer? Ojigbi jigbi jigbi!!!!!

Plus, the man wan damage market for Ibo-made Innoson Motors? Wetin dey do this man sef? I go soon declare for Atiku oh!!

Home industry don suffer for Nigeria== Somethings are not meant to be imported== but where is the source of the news self

Best move, the ban was there while old cars are being imported from Benin Republic to Nigeria on daily basis, car dealers pay 100.000 Naira then that was 400,000 cfa port clearance duty to the Government of Benin Republic for each car while they buy hundreds of cars each day, this lift will help our own economy, ride on jo boy

political move

k-money £:

Home industry don suffer for Nigeria== Somethings are not meant to be imported== but where is the source of the news self

Now the floodgates are opened up, wait till Nigeria gets flooded with cheap Chinese goods and home industry forced to suffer even more from the influx of cheaper goods from foreign markets! People and businesses are already complaining in other parts of Africa, but with this move, we are likely to see our local businesses suffer even more.

Another step backwards.

but the customs men looked the other way everytime, it is better this way since the revenues will go to government and not customs people .useless customs,outdated customs.enemies of Nigeria

oldbende:

Best move, the ban was there while old cars are being imported from Benin Republic to Nigeria on daily basis, car dealers pay 100.000 Naira then that was 400,000 cfa port clearance duty to the Government of Benin Republic for each car while they buy hundreds of cars each day, this lift will help our own economy, ride on jo boy

Why can't the government tighten the borders instead of opening up the fragile home industry to the rampaging effects of unguided importation? Have they thought through the effects of this on exchange rate, unemployment, etc? Just imagine, we should go back to the importation of toothpicks and cassava products!

This is one of the best decision GEJ has taken in recent times! go to occassions & events at Silver bird and tell me the clothes being sold there are made in Nigeria if not explain to me how they got in?  tje band on used vehicle import is the most absurd law in the country. Instead of banding smokey vehicle from riding on our roads FGN is banning used cars knowing fully well that we dont produce cars.
Go to used car dealers all over Nigeria and tell me the cars they sell are 10yr and and below if not explain to me how they got into Nigeria

GEJ just closed a loop hole and opened opportunity for govt to make earnings instead of allowing cotonu's govt to benefit from a foolish law. Nigeria has no business banning textile because we cant create enough to cloth ourselves and the little produced here can not be purchased, yet the rich with sofisticated boutiques around Nigeria can import clothes from Italy, USA and Europe!!!
When are we gonna start have a single law for all man born of a woman in NIGERIA?

Govt should provide full electricity to power the country before banning textiles and bring in a car manufacturing firm that will employ 80% Nigerians, then we can discuss the process of giving them the market through banning! Toyota, Nissan and other new car importers can not ask us to close our borders because they pay tax, if they want our market let them open their factory in Nigeria. Countries like Malaysia bargain for their citizens and they are reaping the results today.

GEJ has opened the doors to discussion, now he has to push alittle further and play the necessary cards when they come knocking at his office requesting closure of the borders again! the borders should be closed on condition that they bring in their plant!!! we are tired of being short changed.

Where are all the pre-order guys? Prices should come down henceforth

@ topic

good or bad?

but when did we start importing cassava sha or have we always imported it.

The point of this move is to generate more government revenue. Even though those good were banned, they still found their way into the country, so the govt. is better off receiving money for them entering the country.

The importation unbanning may or may not hurt local industry that bad because depends on the volume that importers would be willing to import based on the tariff set.

This will not allow price to fall because he did not reduce the tariffs. But certainly older models will be cheaper! e.g 1995/1996
GEJ has proven to be for the common man while the while OBJ & the North were for Big corporations. Dora is against common man and Big corporation na wa for naija country of mixed ideas and mixed feelings!

That was the way they killed all textiles industries, these people are just the same.
You can count the number of Camry 2005 on the street of Dubai, now Nigerian wants to approve importation of Camry1995 in 2010, lol

Good move.

How exactly is government going to actually make money from this when we have two free trade zones importers can bring their goods through?

Kobojunkie:

How exactly is government going to actually make money from this when we have two free trade zones importers can bring their goods through?

OK THEY SELL CARS IN FREE TRADE ZONES IN NAIJA ABI?

i cant believe this, don't this educationally less developed state propped up man have advisers, Aganga with all his Goldman Sach experience decided to turn a 3rd world country ridden with corruption into a certified dumping ground, Nigerian port workers are in jubilation

This is a good move in the aspect of used vehicles, at least it would reduce the revenue made off Naija by R/Benin and custom guys at the various porous int'l borders. But that of cassava and tooth pick, I DEY LAUGH O.

Banning some goods don't just sit well we are after all a signatory to the WTO, this goods banned always found their way into the country through smuggling so its a good move as unbanning them would make them come in legally and generate revenue for the government which would go into funding the the manufacturers of these products in Nigeria, we should note that since the ban on textile in Nigeria and the provision of a special fund to revive the textile industry some of these industries haven't yet picked up---- to me this is a laudable move.

before these people come up with law changes and all, do they think of the economic implications at all?

saying that it is a good move is relative. when the law to restrict rice import was put in place in the early '00s

people were starving so they hurriedly reversed it. is that how economic policy should work?

do they do any forecasts at all?

However, in other news,  the complacency of the government to promoting local business is astonishing.

we should be at the level of production for export on a serious level to other parts of Africa at the very least.

Giant of Africa my f[i]e[/i]cking foot. mtchewwwwwww

This is good for the economy provided they have good intentions. you may be surprised to know that GEJ and his cohort want to import these things for part of their campagn materials. God bless Nigeria

This is a very good move by GEJ.

The decision about the importation of older cars is cool, why not make measures for the production of toothpick, how much will it  cost the Government to train and establish a tooth pick production factory. We dey laugh ooooooooooo

this is a good one afterall those same things that were banned previously still found their way into the country. instead of paying revenue to benin republic one can now import directly and those criminal customs officers can now begin to wallow in self pity. it is good news. at least i can now bring in pieces of furniture directly instead of routing it through cotonou and having to bribe customs officials to bring it into the country.

this is a good one afterall those same things that were banned previously still found their way into the country. instead of paying revenue to benin republic one can now import directly and those criminal customs officers can now begin to wallow in self pity. it is good news. at least i can now bring in pieces of furniture directly instead of routing it through cotonou and having to bribe customs officials to bring it into the country.

Every Country imports but there is a quota. This approval will bring the prices of the goods to the poor who hitherto could not afford the expensive cars of the years range, besides the cars usually found their way in from Cotonou, now it be necessary to go to Cotonou cos we are free to ship them in here without customs problems.

Why depend on local production when there is no hope of them producing quality, How many of you guys shouting wear local fabrics, but these imported found their ways in through the backdoor.

Ask yourself: Will you prefer to live a lifetime of penury, and bad quality goods when there are best qualities at cheaper rate ?

Nigeria can be on holiday all our lives, we are fuccking wealthy. Trade exchanges and interchanges are the links between nations and allies.

Good move I'd say. No need prohibiting the import of goods that are usually smuggled into Nigeria anyway. This way the government can actually improve its revenues from import tariffs. In China, they have nearly 40 % import substitution i.e 40 percent of the goods produced in china actually have imported substitutes.
The difference is we need to upgrade our infrastructure so that this policy move can engender healthy competition between our locally made goods and foreign ones.

gogo123:

i cant believe this, don't this educationally less developed state propped up man have advisers, Aganga with all his Goldman Sach experience decided to turn a 3rd world country ridden with corruption into a certified dumping ground, Nigerian port workers are in jubilation  

Goldman Sachs operatives owe allegiance to profit only. Everything else, including country is secondary. Aganga is following the pattern used to cripple Jamaica and Haiti. This law allows other countries to under-sell our budding industries, killing them, then raising prices. At the end of the day, we become like carribean nations: pretty tourist spots with no political or economic clout, sovereign in name only. No well-to-do country has a law like this, because its stupid. Only mugus follow WTO recommendations. Smarter countries just find a way around it. I'm officially off the GEJ bandwagon.

ok, bintu un town again,