The Reason Behind Nigeria's Diverse Car Scene

Last week, we took a dive into the hassle of owning a car in Singapore. Unlike Singapore, we need not to pay one hundred million naira to own a car and this is the reason why people own so many cars in Nigeria. An average family in Nigeria has at least two cars in good and working condition. More so, the diversity of cars in Nigeria is simply amazing, all thanks to our laxed import rules. Let's get cracking!

1. WE CAN IMPORT ALMOST ANY CAR FROM ANY COUNTRY

Top: American Spec 2012 Toyota Camry; Bottom: European Spec 2012 Toyota Camry

I want you to pay close attention to the image above and try to pick out the difference between the two cars. At first glance, one would think they were the same car, which is very true, with the only differences being the headlights, grill and bumper. The same is the case with the rear of these cars seen in the image below, as the tail lights and rear bumper look different, but the overall shape of the car, as well as the interior remians the same. So what trickery is at play here?

Toyota is a Japanese car maker that manufactures cars for basically everyone on planet Earth, but remember that we all live in the different regions. For Toyota, the United States of America and Europe are it’s main market, and remember that these two places are quite different from each other, having different laws. In this case, automobile laws especially those on safety and noise pollution are different. So, the logical thing for Toyota to do is to make two types of the same car for the US and Europe, but with minor changes like lights, grills and bumpers as seen in the images.

2002 Toyota Corolla for UAE

The Toyota Corolla seen in the above image is quite common in Nigeria, but it would interest you to know that it was originally produced specifically for the United Arab Nations (UAE) market. Where am I going with this? Nigeria might have been colonized by the Europeans, but our car market is in no way restricted to their vehicles. Hence, we get to enjoy the best of all worlds. In Nigeria, any kind of car can basically be imported. This is why there are US and Euro spec cars all over the place and this adds to the beauty and diversity of our car scene.

2. IMPORTING CARS IS NOT AS DIFFICULT 

Importing cars into Nigeria is not as difficult as it is in other countries like Cuba. Although, what we miss out in difficulty, we make up for in expense. In Nigeria, the government imposes a 35% import duty on imported vehicles. This means that if a car costs $10,000, the import duty alone would be $3,500, which is a significant sum. $3,500 is enough money to buy a Nigerian used car. The import duty is calculated based on the vehicle's value and year of manufacture.

The good thing about being in Nigeria is that we have so many car dealerships that have performed the hardwork of importing these cars for us. All we need to do is walk into a trusted car delearship and purchase a car. Even if the car you want is not currently in the delearship, they are more than willing to help you with importation. Unfortunately, cars are becoming very expensive in Nigeria due to the rising dollar to naira rate and so are import duties. Nonetheless, cars are being imported on a daily.

These two serve as the major reasons for the diversity of the Nigerian car scene, as "anything goes", when it comes to importing cars into Nigeria. For the next couple weeks, blogposts will no longer be released weekly, rather they will be released every other week. I hope you all have a great day. Thank you for reading and always remember to Turbo that engine!