By Moses Ebosele, ebosele@hotmail.com –
Between January and the third quarter of this year, award winning Hilux contributed about 70 per cent of the 1,900 units of vehicles sold by Toyota Nigeria Limited.
Briefing Journalists on the performance of TNL within the period, Managing Director, Kunle Ade-Ojo explained that the company has the highest market share of 22 per cent within the period under review.
He said: “This year, if you look at the sales ratio of vehicles, most sales were more of commercial vehicles. In 2018, we hope to see a bit of balancing with the recovery of passenger vehicles. This year, a lot of companies were very careful because of the economic recession. They buy vehicles that will help improve productivity of their business.
“As the economy improves, there will be balancing of sales across the models and vehicle segments,’, said Ade-Ojo, adding that Toyota market share in Nigeria would rise to 24 per cent at the end of the year.
The Managing Director who spoke on sundry issued related to the sector said: “As at the end of the third quarter of the year, the vehicle sales were 7,000 units compared to about 14,500 last year, which is a drop of about 48 per cent in sales”.
He added: “From the importation point of view, there is a slight improvement because in the first quarter, we had about 90 per cent drop, but as of the third quarter, the drop had reduced to 62 per cent.”
Accompanied by Head Marketing, Andrew Ajuyah, Public Relations Manager, Bukky Ogunnusi and Marketing Manager, Bayo Olaniyi, Ade-Ojo attributed the fall in the sale and importation/assembly of new vehicles in the country in the last one year to economic recession; increase in the import duty from 22 per cent to 70 per cent; drop in the value of the naira against the United States dollar and other foreign currencies; and other foreign exchange-related issues.
