More Nigerian families struggle while country wastes loans
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
More Nigerian families are finding it near impossible to feed, with low incomes and high inflation, coupled with the high cost of governance which drains funds that could have been ploughed into social infrastructure.
Car ownership, part of the Nigerian dream in years gone by, is now banished from wishes, and those who can still afford to buy a car, mostly second, use it more for commercial purposes than pleasure.
To get by, they sign up for ride-hailing firms like Uber, Bolt, and inDrive.
Below is a sample of those who have taken this route to stay afloat, per survey conducted by Vanguard.
Salami Shotunde (worker)
“I am very sad at the present living condition of many Nigerians. It is difficult to feed these days.
“I had to sell my Toyota Camry, 2006 model, after parking it at home for months.
“Buying fuel is expensive and business is not moving at all. The most important thing now is to stay healthy, and feeding is a major part to it.
“To feed my family, I had to sell my car.”
Olamide Balogun (business man)
“I just bought a Nigerian-used Toyota Sienna car, a few days back for N3.8 million.
“That is what people buy now, because those Tokunbo cars are very expensive.
“Meanwhile, I didn’t buy it for pleasure but for transport business. I was shocked to see the pain of the owner to let the car go. He confessed it was just to keep his family that he had to sell the car”
Chiemezie Onuoha (car dealer)
“The increased freight, duty, logistics costs, among other things have really increased the cost of imported cars.
“By this time last year a Toyota brand car, depending on the year [of manufacture], was sold for N3 million to N3.8 million. But now it is as high as N7 million.
“Then sales was high because in a month I [sold] five to six cars.
“Now I hardly sell three cars. People are now interested in buying Nigerian used cars because they are more affordable.”
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Oluwaseyi Adeji (engineer and car dealer)
“People buying Nigerian used cars are buying the Toyota brand and Lexus brand.
“This is because the Toyota brands are fuel economical, which is the best choice in this current state of fuel [price] increase. [They are] durable, have high speed frequency and are stronger when compared to other brands.
“Apart from that, people buy them for commercial purposes. That is for Uber. And some are given the opportunity to pay instalmentally.
“Many of the newly invented sophisticated beautiful cars are not fuel economical.
“Their front wheel drive easily pulls out on high speed and their body which are supposed to be pans (coated metals), are now plastics. Technology has given them a new look.”
Increase in car import tariff
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on June 26 announced an increase in the official exchange rate used by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to calculate import duties and levies from N422.30 per dollar to N589 per dollar.
That translates into importers paying more import duty to clear cargoes at the seaports because naira is floated to allow market forces determine the exchange rate.