Automobile dealers at the popular Berger automobile market in Apapa, Lagos have offered to help the government in the fight against car smuggling, if given a conducive business environment.
The association also frowned at the decision of the government to ban the importation of vehicles through land borders, saying that the government is losing a lot because of that.
In a chat with Shipping Position Daily recently in Lagos, the Chairman of Berger Auto Dealers Association ; Chief Metche Nnadiekwe assured that the group can help if the necessary buy-in is received from the government.
“We can stop smuggling as far as this Berger is concerned. Because by the time you bring your vehicle at the entrance we will check you and if you didn’t pay your duty we will ask you to go out. By the time we do that to one or two people everyone will sit up and smuggling of will be a thing of the past”, he stated.
“The ban on the importation of cars through land borders has meted out untold hardship on us. I want to say that the government should try and re-open the land borders and reduce the cost of clearing”, he also pleaded.
The government is losing a lot. If they know what they are losing and what we Nigerians are losing they shouldn’t have done that. I told them why we were meeting in Abuja that when next they want to do something like that, they should involve the stakeholders. Let’s put ideas together for the good of everyone.
The government should help us because we voted them in for good”, he advised.
Discussion about this post