From Uche Usim, Abuja
Minister of Finance Mr Wale Edun has said that the days of massive vehicle theft and high revenue hemorrhage through Customs duty evasion were numbered, as the national vehicle registry (VREG) initiative of the federal government was being broadened to address those menaces.
Edun gave the assurance on Tuesday at the second zonal sensitisation seminar on VREG in Abuja.
He said the VREG system offers a dynamic and centralised platform that connects all relevant stakeholders like the Customs Service (NCS), National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), National Collateral Registry (NCR), and the motor
vehicle administration agency of most of the states including FCT.
“These connections have brought about real-time, dynamic information exchange leading to optimisation and plugging of revenue leakages associated with vehicle importation and vehicle insurance administration.
“VREG is connected to multiple global VIN databases and vehicle history repositories for real-time international interconnectivity and robust curation of vehicular data towards ensuring all vehicles entering into Nigeria and operational within are interconnected to the global vehicular information network for the facilitation of global trade and crime fighting, amongst others. “Furthermore, VREG serves as a dynamic aggregator of vehicular data pooled from the various vehicle administrating stakeholders to promote real-time information exchange and interconnectivity among
stakeholders, towards the actualisation of their respective and collective mandates.
“In addition to the objectives of this policy, VREG is strategically positioned to provide insightful data analytics for policy formulation and implementation, mechanisms for the mitigation of revenue leakages from tax evasion and other revolutionisation of vehicle insurance generation and compliance, and improved crimes.
He also revealed that with VREG, access to credit for vehicle importation and purchase would be strengthened.
The minister said Nigeria could no longer afford to lose revenue in the midst of falling oil prices and operating a mono-economy.
“Furthermore, the absence of a dynamic and centralised platform for national vehicular information, despite Nigeria being the largest importer of vehicles in Africa with an additional 15 million vehicles operational in the country. This huge vacuum had sustained the menaces of Customs duty evasion, paucity of data for vehicular policy formulation, nationwide vehicle administration for revenue leakages, vehicle theft and vehicle-related crimes, challenges in road traffic regulation enforcement, limited access to credit facilities and ineffective vehicle insurance coverage and monitoring and evaluation.
“It is worthy to note that since the emergence of VREG in 2020, several benefits of the registry have been achieved amongst which include, utilisation as a tool to mitigate the evasion of Customs duty payment and drive operational efficiency in motor vehicle administration across state lines,” he added.