Toyota With Minimal Sales In The First Quarter Of The Year- Ade Ojo

The Managing Director of Toyota Nigeria Limited, Mr. Kunle Ade Ojo while Briefing newsmen at their Lekki, Lagos office during their quarterly meeting, disclosed that the total sales figure of vehicles across the country including all brands stood at 2,000 units when compared to 5,500 vehicles sold within the same period in 2016.
He attributed the poor sales and import figure of vehicles to scarcity of foreign exchange, devaluation of the naira, high interest rate and high duty being paid by automobile companies in the country.

“If we add everything we pay like VAT and other taxes, you will discover that the vehicle importer pays as much as 85 per cent duty on a single car,” noting that his company paid as much as N15m on one Land Cruiser vehicle. Despite all the challenges, he said that Toyota still leads the market in terms of vehicle sales and import and attributed Toyota’s lead to quality of product, excellent after sales and availability of spare parts.

Mr. Ade-Ojo also added satying, “The scarcity of foreign exchange, devaluation of the naira and the high interest rate coupled with the economic shortfall hiked prices of vehicles and crippled buying power of many buyers,” adding that 3500 units of vehicles were imported in the first quarter of 2016, while 350 units of vehicles were imported in the first quarter of 2017, the lowest in the last decade. Annual imiport vehicle figure before 2016 was between 50,000 to 100,000. He added that even with recent efforts made by the government to tackle the forex challenge, the sector has not seen positive results, stressing that vehicles were being overvalued by customs official at ports of entry.

Contributions: http://www.eyesoflagos.com/2017/05/toyota-boss-laments-nigerias-lowest.html