Clarion Banded Terminal has appealed to the government to be serious on its implementation on the ban of vehicles importation through land borders.
The off-dock vehicle terminal operator, in chat with Auto Port Weekly in Lagos last week emphasised the need for government to deter vehicles importation from land borders in order to discourage smuggling and to boost revenue profile of customs.
Chief Frank Okocha, General Manager of the company said, for government to succeed on the ban, it has to ensure strict compliance.
Okocha called on the government to employ more youths in some of the security agencies that would assist in manning some of the porous border post across the country for effective policing of the frontiers.
He said "for the policy to succeed, government needs to implement the policy otherwise it will just go the way of other policies that did not pay off"
"The policy is supposed to reduce smuggling of cars into the country through the land borders but the implementation is the most important thing here"
"If the government is sincere about the ban on used vehicles to Nigeria through land border then it must be aggressive with the implementation”, he added.
Okocha also appealed to the federal government to look at the exchange rate to encourage international trade, even as he added that the major issue on vehicle importation to Nigeria revolves round the exchange rate.
According to him, "if the government is banning vehicle importation from land borders to encourage the seaports, what about the issue of forex"
"I think forex should be the most important to consider fast and foremost before the ban "
"Importation has drop due to forex therefore the forex issue is supposed to come before the ban", he added.
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