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From Uche Usim, Abuja
The federal government commenced a pilot phase of the National Vehicle Registry (VREG) policy at the Nigeria Customs Service, Kirikiri Lighter Terminal in Lagos, in a deft move to tackle terrorism, kidnapping, smuggling and other crimes aided by vehicles.
Speaking at a sensitisation workshop on VREG in Abuja on Thursday, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed explained that the new initiative also aims at plugging revenue leakages via Customs duty evasion.
She revealed that the Ministry convened the nation-wide seminar to educate Nigerians on vehicle registration processes and vehicle transfer processes.
According to her, the National Bureau of Statistics confirmed that between 2015 to 2019, Nigeria imported an average of 300,000 vehicles with an average of 48% increase in import annually.
“An additional 45% of the vehicles are smuggled into the country annually, thus evading duty payment of which 40% of these vehicles are stolen vehicles. A case study also revealed that between October, 2018 to September, 2019 the country recorded over 1.8 trillion Naira value of used vehicle importation. “It was further revealed that Nigeria was the hub of stolen vehicles as Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) of vehicles in the country were usually unregistered, consequently, vehicles within the shores of Nigeria cannot be traced.
“In a bid to address these challenges, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning launched the National Vehicle Registry (VREG), which is a national repository of vehicular information that seeks to provide a singular platform through which all relevant agencies shall reference vehicular data with a view of ascertaining ownership and value information, capturing vehicular exchanges and utilizing the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) of all vehicles in Nigeria. Additional value is also accruable to the Federal Government, State Governments and related agencies via this policy”, the Minister explained.
She added that the VREG System, will among others, serve as a single source of validation at the point of vehicle registration while capturing and storing all vehicular information over the life cycle of every vehicle for the purpose of effective motor vehicle administration, ensuring the enforceability of penalties placed on vehicles by regulators across board and ensuring accurate monitoring, documentation and tracking of vehicular activities across the nation to enhance national security.
“The VREG is powered by interconnected interactions of key agencies, parties, and stakeholders. There will be interchange of information with Federal Road Safety Corps and State Revenue Systems’ on nationwide vehicle registration, ownership, history, and for proper road traffic regulation and violation enforcement.
“Aggregation and regularization of vehicle insurance across the country when the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is integrated into VREG.
“Communication between Central Bank of Nigeria’s moveable asset registry and the National Vehicle Registry to provide dynamic records of vehicular assets thus boosting lendability to Nigerians.
Integration with Nigerian Police Force and security Agencies such as Office of the National Security Adviser to facilitate robust nationwide vehicular tracking, and comprehensive theft and other vehicle-related crimes reporting”, she noted.
