Okonjo-Iweala explained that the government had decided to encourage the automobile industry to ensure that vehicles were manufactured in the country.
She said that the government spent a lot of money on importation of cars, adding that such expenditure had to be halted to encourage indigenous production of vehicles.
“We have our own indigenous Innoson, who has been manufacturing cars. First, it started with assembling of the cars but now 50 per cent of his car parts are manufactured from scratch here in this country.
“And, we said that if we can do this, why can’t we invite other people to manufacture cars here and sell. For that, we are giving them some incentives to bring in some parts that they will need, free of duty.
We are also increasing the tariff but that’s a very tricky area. We are watching it to see what the appropriate tariff should be,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala called on Nigerians to be patient with government as it was being cautious with the vehicle importation tariff, saying that the government would not want to record smuggling of vehicles as being done for rice.
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