China is capitalising on the impoverished middle clash in Nigeria that cannot buy brand new vehicles with the said commcement of importation of used vehicles from the country into Nigeria.
This coming after the rejection of the of the auto policy bill by the Presidency which industry analysts described as double tragedy. China has an estimated fleet of over 300 million privatelyregistered vehicles, the largest in the world.
Recalled that recently, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that, a state-backed company in Guangzhou had officially shipped used cars to Cambodia, Myanmar and Russia with Nigeria as one of the major destinations for the first batch of 300 units.
The export, it was reported, was expected to deepen implementation of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), promote the stable growth of foreign trade, and increase demand for new vehicles in that country.
In what he described as very embarrassing to the Nigerian economy with its attendant negative impact on the local automotive assembly, David V. C. Obi warned that, the development may sound the death knell for the local auto industry unless government takes an urgent step to halt the invasion or impose heavy duties on the vehicles.
Obi who is the chairman, Motor Vehicles & Miscellaneous Assembly Sectoral Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), said that, the "Chinese gift" was not only shocking, but would also amount to opening the floodgates for used vehicles that may sink the local industry.
He lamented that if allowed to flood the local market, the used vehicles from China would fin
ish the damage the influx from Europe and America have been inflicting on the local industry over the years.
Last week, auto industry stakeholders expressed outrage over the impending arrival of Chinese vehicles at the ports. They advised the Nigerian government to take a cue from the United States of America, which has been locked in a trade war with China over the need to protect American manufacturers and their products from the invasion of imports from the Asian country.
Recalling how he received the news of the coming of used vehicles from China, an auto industry analyst and senior vice president (Strategy & Development), Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), Rasheed Adegbenro, said, "when I got the information, my immediate reaction was, ' used vehicles from China? We are finished!' "
The vehicle brands expected to arrive Nigerian ports soon from China include Land Rover, Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Trumpchi, King Long, Yutong, Zhongtong and WOHO.
The chairman of DVC Group; a pivotal role player in the automotive industry warned that with the ban on production and sales of fossil fuel vehicles by Chinese provinces, European countries and other parts of the world, taking effect in a few years, Nigeria should not open its borders for the dumping of disused vehicles from industrialised countries.
According to him, one of the many implications of lack of a legal framework for the policy and the imminent invasion of Chinese tokunbo vehicles, is that many renowned OEMS (Original Equipment Manufacturers), who are afraid to invest in Nigeria because of our usual policy summersault, will remain reluctant because there is no assurance that their investments will be protected.
"It is also very ridiculous to hear the argument that tokunbo vehicles are not on the import prohibition list and therefore should be allowed to freely come in as long as they are not old. The emphasis should rather be on loss of jobs resulting from the present inactivity in the auto manufacturing sector.
In his submission, "Everybody knows that once China joins the used vehicles shipment to Nigeria, we are finished. Moreover, the shipment is an official initiative of the Chinese government and will be sustained over many years, which means that millions of vehicles driven in China will end their life-spans in Nigeria as the Chinese look forward to electric cars.
"Luckily for them, we are relieving them of the burden of disposing of vehicles they can no longer use. But, unfortunately for us, our government does not seem to know the implications of allowing this kind of dumping; one of which is stifling the efforts to promote local assembly, deepen auto technology and generate jobs."
He lamented the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to give assent to the Nigeria Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) Fiscal Incentive and Guarantees Bill, arguing that the Chinese are simply taking advantage of a loophole resulting from the lukewarm implementation of the auto policy.
"And there is no way the situation will improve if we continue to allow used vehicles to flood into the country while we take one step forward and two steps backward with the auto policy''. Obi stated.

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