Saraki urges dealers to patronise made-in-Nigeria cars, says continuous importation not sustainable

Senate president, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has urged the Association of Motor Dealers of Nigeria (AMDON) to key into the current campaign for the promotion of locally made goods through the purchase and sale of locally manufactured vehicles in the country. Saraki made the plea when he hosted the National President of AMDON, Prince Ajibola Adedoyin, who led other members of the association on an official visit.

He told the union that instead of bemoaning what the association described as astronomical custom duty and tariffs on imported vehicles, they should switch to buying and selling locally produced cars.

Saraki however insisted that the Senate would not condone any fraudulent tendencies in the implementation of the nation’s automotive policy. Earlier, Adedoyin had lamented the implementation of the nation’s automotive policy, which he said has caused the prices of cars to skyrocket, thereby denying them of customers.

“We want Nigeria to be a manufacturing nation, but the idea of indirect ban on the importation of a necessity such as vehicles, in the hope of assembling made in Nigeria cars, while we are yet to assemble or manufacture a bicycle, is a wild imagination which will definitely be realized after it has inflicted great pains on Nigerians and its economy, not to talk of the waste of scarce resources which would have gone down the drain,” he said. He called on the Senate to invite the Minister of Trade and Investment and the Director General of the National Automative Council to shed light on the development.