About N601.51 billion was spent on the importation of motor vehicles in the first half of the year, according to the latest foreign trade report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
An analysis of the figure shows an increase of 15 per cent, compared to N523.57 billion recorded in the corresponding period in 2020.
This is in spite the reduced import duties on vehicles.
The report showed that vehicle imports accounted for 4.4 per cent of total imports of N13.8 trillion recorded in the period under review, while a total of N1.09 trillion was spent on vehicle imports in the previous year.
In the second quarter of 2021, imports of passenger cars grew by 14.03 per cent to N311.63 billion compared to the corresponding quarter in 2020, where imports for the same item stood at N273.28 billion.
Import of vehicles has been on a steady increase over the past three years, recording an increase of 195 per cent from N371.98 billion in 2018 to N1.09 trillion in 2020.
By extension, as the imports of motor vehicles increased in Q2 2021, it made up 39 per cent of the total transport equipment and parts imported during the same period, which is N798.51 billion.
Used vehicles, otherwise known as “Tokunbo” worth N172.1 billion were also imported in the second quarter of the year, being the third highest imported item by value.
