The Chief Executive Officer of Multimix Academy, Dr. Obiora Madu, has said that most Nigerians cannot afford new vehicles as a result of the poor state of the economy and the purchasing power of Nigerians.
Dr Madu who said this recently in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, also canvassed for the need to have more car assembly plants in Nigeria just to make the products affordable to Nigerians.
Speaking during the chat, he also kicked against making duties on used vehicles higher than those of the new ones, saying that it will take a lot of people off the market.
“Look at the economy and the purchasing power of people, if you say that you want to take up the duty of old vehicles you will shut out a lot of people from the market. Where are the new vehicles, can people afford it with the level of income here in this country. Those people you want to scare from buying old vehicles, can they afford brand new vehicles, he argued.
‘’When you come up with such a policy, you want to encourage people to buy new vehicles, where are the vehicles; apart from what Inosson is doing, where are the rest of them? How much is the least car in Inosson, there is no way it will not be above N6million. I don’t think you can get any brand new Peugeot product for N10million so the thing is you must provide alternative”, he added.
He encouraged the government to emulate what is happening in other countries like India as far as automobile industry is concerned where there are lots of vehicle assembly companies.
“Because the middle class as we speak cannot afford new vehicle so if you have the kind of nation that India has where there are lots of car producing companies like, you would be able to handle it in such a way that the price will be reasonable so you will be able to convince people to use made in Nigeria cars. But the fact is that where are the made in Nigeria cars and the few that you will find, how much are they”, he concluded.
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