Vehicle importation drops by 40% as Customs implements use of VIN for clearing

This was revealed by the outgoing Controller of the command, acting Assistant Comptroller General, Suleiman Bomai.

He further added that in 2022, some major issues like government policies E.g, the introduction of the VIN had affected the command’s output, especially in the motor vehicle clearing department.

The VIN was introduced earlier in 2022 and was meant to automatically determine the value of import duty that is expected to be paid on any imported cars by any importer immediately after the vehicle is passed through a dedicated scanning machine.

The process was suspended in March 2022 after it was rejected by customs agents. It was later, reintroduced in May 2022.

The few weeks' suspension was to give freight forwarders a one-month waiver to allow them to clear their backlog of stranded vehicles.

Speaking further, Bomai stated that in the year under review, the terminal mostly handled vehicles which amounted to about 80 per cent of the cargoes handled in the terminal.

More data showed that from January to October 2021, a total of 192,287 units of vehicles came into the country. This amount was reduced by 40% as only 114,159 units were imported through the same terminal in the same review period in 2022.

The terminal is responsible for the importation of most vehicles coming to Nigeria.

Apart from the drop in vehicle importation, a document sighted by The Punch correspondent further revealed that from January to October 2022, 122 vessels berthed at the ports when compared with 167 vessels recorded within the same period in the previous year.