Rev. Emmanuel Agubanze (Chairman, Lillypon Chapter NAGAFF)
Rev. Emmanuel Agubanze (Chairman, Lillypon Chapter NAGAFF)
Buhari as the President is still trying to look at the situation on ground; he is trying to appraise all the policies that were on ground before he came into power. The auto policy happens to be one of those policies and I am in support that he looks at it again before he makes any statement. For us in the freight forwarding industry, we know that the auto policy is not the best that Nigerians could get, it is like you are trying to deny a lot of Nigerians access to the ownership of vehicles, and you know that Buhari as a person is someone who wants to associate with the poor masses of Nigeria, he should look at the policy again and try to fine-tune it so that it does not become negative in its implementation.
Frank Obiekezie (Nat. Secretary, AREFFN)
Buhari is still quiet over many things and the assumption is that he is taking his time to study all the policies and come up with an informed policy. Our cry is that the economy is not prepared enough before the introduction of the Auto Policy, it is not enough to tell us that one company will be producing vehicles while the enabling environment have not been created, if Buhari wants to go by that policy, it is a good policy but my advice to him is that he should suspend it, create an enabling environment before he brings it back. A lot of enlightenment is also required, most of the people that are at the port, the terminals were established to handle vehicles, these are investments by people, and you cannot just come overnight and cut it off, my advice is that Buhari should suspend the auto policy, create enabling environment and ensure it does not dislocate the freight forwarders and the terminal operators.
Chief Osita Okereke (President Importers Association)
The auto policy has no problem, it only has a time limit, a car of 20 years or five years should not enter Nigeria, it all depends on the life span, every car that is produced has a life span, if you can verify this then you will realize that it is an authentic policy. I am in full support that Buhari should pass the auto policy, we cannot continue to have cars of 40 years old coming into Nigeria, it is a nuisance and we should not have that in Nigeria. People complained about tariff, but I believe that when the cars come in the tariff should be placed on them, then people will know whether to keep importing them or not.
Mustapha Aboki (Vice Chair, NAGAFF at Tin Can Port)
You are aware of the fact that a new Customs Comptroller General has just been appointed, by the time he resumes, we will push for the auto policy to be reversed, we cannot just go directly to the Presidency, we have to start from somewhere, the Presidency might not want to listen to us directly. My advice is that the Auto Policy should be reversed, we are losing a lot, and government is equally losing a lot of revenue as a result of that policy. Already there is an age limit for cars, before the policy came into place; we have it that any car manufactured above 15 years should not be imported, so why can't we limit ourselves to this law? As at the time we were using this, things were going smoothly, we were having jobs to do and government was collecting it's revenue, but right now, the imports have been shifted to our neighbouring countries and this is a minus on our part, we want to appeal that Buhari should revisit the policy with the aim of reversing it.
Emmanuel Akidi (Deputy President NCMDLCA)
The auto policy has been subjected to contestation and from the point of the freight agents. We are not really comfortable with it and we know that it is not a boost to the manufacturing sector of the country at the moment, considering the fact that there is no level playing ground for it to succeed. But I will advise that President Buhari should cast it away because it is not for the best interest of the Nigerian public. I strongly kick against the existence of the policy.
Festus Ukwu (Freight forwarder)
We all know that the new administration is working on each sector one after the other and I know that some of the numerous problem facing the maritime sector will be addressed soon, including the auto policy. It is left for the president to revisit the policy, study it and take a stand whether to work on it or thrash it out completely, because he has his own mind set on how to handle issues surrounding the auto policy which was introduced by the former administration.
Emmanuel Obi (ANLCA Airport chapter)
The president at the moment, has a very tight schedule addressing issues faced in the economy. But as regards the auto policy, my view is that government should reduce tariff to encourage vehicle importation and monitor the progress of the proposed assembly plants which we heard have commenced production, but not visible in our market. Customs also has their own problems associated with vehicles importation into Nigeria. Therefore President Buhari should give a marching order through a policy statement that will monitor the manufacturers in Nigeria, then reduce tariff until we are able to get it right on the area of vehicle assembly.
Zebulon Ikokide (NIFFCB)
It goes beyond the auto policy because the problem faced in the maritime industry goes beyond the auto policy. What we should advice the government is to make sure that we have a policy statement that will move the sector forward. I know that with a policy of such in place all the problems faced in the industry will be addressed amicably, including the auto policy.
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