FEMI OWOEYE
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]oyota Nigeria Limited (TNL) has forecasted a further drop in sales volume by the nation’s auto industry in the year 2016. The managing director of the company, Mr. Kunle Ade-Ojo made the submission recently during a press briefing held at TNL Lekki headquarters, Lagos.
According to him, 2015 was very bad for the automobile industry, a situation he attributed to Naira depreciation, high tariff on imported Fully Built Up (FBU) vehicles and the general election held during the year.
He explained: “Last year election did not generate sales like previous elections. And by the third quarter of the year, we started experiencing FOREX scarcity, which is now getting worse.”
Given the 2015 result and what the experience has been in the New Year so far, the TNL boss submitted that total sales volume will drop further.
“We are looking at total sales figure of about 27,000, compared to about 32,000 we did in 2015,” he predicted.
The TNL boss expressed disagreement with stakeholders, who suggested prioritization of FOREX allocation as a panacea to the problems of the nation’s auto industry.
“With the situation on ground, the reality is that Forex cannot be prioritized to one industry,” he pointed out. “With the crash in price of sale of crude oil, which has been the nation’s economic mainstay, the FOREX coming into the country has been badly shrunk. So there is little the government can do in that regard.”
The TNL boss therefore recommended introduction of efficiency in the management of the nation’s oil.
“And in the interim,” he advised, “we need to work together, do our own bits, as the government does its own. It is in that way, we can get out of the logjam.”
Despite his negative outlook for the auto industry in 2016, TNL boss is optimistic that Toyota brand would regain its leadership position in the Nigerian auto market.
“We are back to our rightly position,” he declared. “For right now we are trading on about 30%.”
According to him, Toyota Nigeria had a market share of 28% in 2014, which dropped to about 24% in 2015, during which the company sold about 8000 unit of vehicles out of about 32,000 units sold in the entire industry.
Although Mr. Ade-Ojo predicts a drop of total sales in the industry from about 32,000 to about 27,000, Toyota Nigeria, he predicted, would slice a share of about 26% of that figure.
TNL’s confidence was buoyed by the success recorded from the Toyota Conquest it introduced into the market early this year.
The company’s Chairman, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, in his address at the occasion of the company’s award night held recently in Lagos, said the first 100 Conquest brought into the country sold out immediately, a situation TNL MD says assures the company of a brighter future and a regain of control position in the nation’s auto industry.
[highlight]Posted by: Motoring World On:  April 3rd, 2016  In:Local News[/highlight]
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