Nigeria spent a staggering sum of N1.08 trillion to import used cars (popularly called Tokunbo) and motorcycles (Okada) in one year (October 2018 – September 2019), Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.
Reports from various NBS data indicate that cars and motorcycle importation into Nigeria rose from N252.3 billion in Q4 2018 to N301.8 billion in Q3 2019.
Breakdown: Car and motorbike importation in Nigeria
Nigeria continue to remain an import-dependent country, as the nation’s import bill between October 2018 and September 2019 rose to N15.19 trillion while the country’s export for the same period stood at N18.87 trillion. This implies that the country’s trade balance summed up to be N3.68 trillion.
Further break down of the data shows that the importation of used cars stood at N676.3 billion during the period while the amount spent on motorbike importation was at N411.3 billion.
This means with Nigeria’s import amounting to N15.19 trillion, used cars and motorcycle importation accounted for 7% of the country’s total import.
According to the report, most motorbikes imported into the country are completely Knocked Down (CKD). Basically, CKD is fully disassembled item parts that are required to be assembled by the end-user or the reseller. Goods are shipped in CKD form to reduce freight charges on the basis of the space occupied by the volume of the item.
On the other hand, used cars imported are either with diesel or semi-diesel engine, of cylinder capacity.
Further details provided by the Bureau show that the used imported cars came from countries like the United States, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Canada.
However, motorcycles (CKD) imported into Nigeria are basically from India and China.
Nairametric