FG decries $9bn Forex leakage through vehicle imports

The federal government has decried the $9 billion spent annually on importation of about 400,000 vehicles into the country.

Speaking separately yesterday at an automotive event held in Abuja, Niyi Adebayo, the minister of trade and investment,  and Abubakar Malami,  the attorney general of the federation andmMinister of justice, said the huge foreign exchange (Forex) leakage affected the economy negatively.

The trade minister made a case for increased local content usage in domestic production of vehicles to crash the price of locally made vehicles.

Adebayo, who was represented at the event, said more Nigerians would be able to purchase locally manufactured vehicles if the high price could be crashed by using locally sourced raw materials.

He said Nigeria was importing vehicles from many countries across the world and exporting none, thereby creating trade deficit in Nigeria’s automotive industry.

The justice minister, on his part, pledged legal support needed to narrow the huge vehicle import bills burdening Nigeria. He said his office would speed up legislations relevant in revamping the auto industry to make it attractive to investors.

Malami further said there was need to stop the leakage of the $9bn annually via vehicle imports by providing legal support for the country’s domestic auto industry.