The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Adewale Adeniyi, has said that vehicle import into the country dropped by 45 percent in the first quarter of 2024 amid the foreign exchange crisis.
Adeniyi disclosed this recently in an interview with Arise Television.
According to him, the referenced period has been tough for Nigerians and businesses due to forex rate volatility.
“It affected car dealers. We had as much as a 45 percent decrease in the volume of cars that were brought into Nigeria in that period
“And they were not the kind of cars that fetched optimum revenue for the customs.
“Not only cars, but even regular imports were also affected because people could no longer import raw materials as they wanted and the volatility did not allow them to plan for tomorrow,” the CGC stated.
This is as Naira had continued to fluctuate against the Dollar in the foreign exchange market.
The currency depreciated further to N1512.61 per dollar on Wednesday.
Recall that the National Bureau of Statistics Q1 2024 trade report said N12.6 billion worth of goods were imported into Nigeria as against N19.2 billion exports.