Stanley Ezenga (NAGAFF PRO)
Yes, I do, because we all know that once ‘accidented’ vehicles come in here, it creates job opportunities for people, such as the vehicle part sellers, panel beaters, painters. Looking at the economic effect of this, you find out that the above categories of people have been provided with work of which these vehicles can be repaired abroad, but people decide to bring it the way it is, once it gets here the vehicle would be worked on and from this, they make more money.
Obinna Okafor (Freight Forwarders)
Accidented vehicles are in different classes, such as major accidented Vehicles, minimum accidented vehicles and lots more. Any vehicle that is up to date, that does not have battery issues, has minimal and has minimal dent and if the emission of the vehicle is not affecting the climate, such vehicle stands a chance to work. The government has taken the right decision by allowing the importation of accidented vehicles.
The question is, what type of accidented vehicle are we talking about? Not vehicles that have high emission which can lead to environmental pollution, the year and value of the vehicle must be considered in order to benefit the country, economy, port and industry.
Yemi Adedoyin (Importer)
Well, importation of accidented vehicles is very good, how many people can afford to buy a clean vehicle, how many people can pay the real duty for vehicles that are not accidented? Whereas a clean vehicle is more or less purchased at a landing cost which does not really bring much profit unlike an accidented vehicle, in which they buy and fix by themselves which thereby generate more profit than a title vehicle. It is obvious that an average Nigerian wants something cheaper and affordable, as a result of this it is advisable that the government should not stop the importation of accidented vehicles.
Dele Olagunju (Clearing Agent)
We allowed impunity to fester for a long time in this country, I was born in and lived in Ghana and throughout my stay before migrating to Nigeria, there was nothing like accidented vehicles in Ghana. For a vehicle to be considered accidented, the chassis of an accidented vehicle might not be well repaired which can cause accident on the road, reason why the importer makes more gain while the purchaser will be at the receiving end, because he/she is not buying a grade one vehicle and it might end up giving a lot of problem by developing faults. In a nutshell, I am not in support of importation of accidented Vehicle.
Festus Ukwu (Freight Forwarder)
The so-called accidented vehicle does not have much damage that can cause a lot of problems, what is needed is to remove the damaged parts of the vehicle and input another one. By doing, so it will be better than a new vehicle, the only thing is to change the part that has been dented. I fully support importation of an accidented vehicle.
Opadokun Festus (Car Dealer)
Importation of accidented vehicles is not new, and I don’t want to believe Nigeria is the only country that allows importation of accidented vehicles, as long as the accidented area can be fixed and it be in a good shape, why not. Let us create job for those who don’t have job, after all how many direct jobs can the government boast of creating, more so I believe importation of accidented vehicles have no effect on the government.
Eugene Nweke (Freight Forwarder)
Having the larger population at heart, especially the artisans, I would say importation of accidented vehicles is not bad, but we need to look inwards and re-evaluate why do government spend so much money in concessioning about 120 auto factories and given them concession to come into Nigeria and assemble vehicles. The auto policy of government under Jonathan Goodluck is a total defeat, out of this 100 plus auto factories given concession, how many of them are functional up to this moment. We don’t have assembly plants that will cost less than N1 million in Nigeria, by allowing importation of accidented vehicles we are still encouraging and accepting that we are a third world country when we have all it takes to manufacture from beginning to the end.
