Motorcycle manufacturers lost 25 per cent of their market share in Lagos State from the fallout of the ban restricting commercial motorcycle rides in some areas, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has said.
In a phone interview with The PUNCH, Chairman of the Motorcycle Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Lambert Ekewuba, blamed government policies, including motorcycle bans, epileptic power supply, foreign exchange challenges, and import tariffs, for hurting the growth of the industry.
“For Lagos State, we lost over 25 per cent of the market since the ban set in when Governor Babatunde Fashola was in power,” he said.
Multiple Lagos State governors have enforced the ban on commercial motorcycles, also known as ‘Okada’ in Lagos.
While the then-governor Bola Tinubu initially threatened a ban in 2005, it would be his successor, Babatunde Fashola, who eventually put the ban in place in 2012. Subsequent governors, including Akinwunmi Ambode and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have enforced and/ or extended the ban.
The MOMAN chairman said the industry’s losses were worsened by the fact that motorcycles were more in demand in urban centres such as Lagos, which are the same areas affected by bans.
“The motorcycle business thrives more in urban cities,” Ekewuba noted. “Those are the places where they make more turnover. When motorcycles were allowed to operate, people had a much higher turnover.”
He gave an example of Bajaj, which used to sell over 3,000 units monthly before the restriction began. However, sales have dropped drastically since the bans came into effect, compounded by the rising cost of units now selling for between N2.2m and N2.5m.
Ekewuba revealed that the sharp drop in local patronage has forced many motorcycle manufacturers and dealers to divert their markets to neighbouring West African countries such as Cameroon, Togo, Benin, and Ghana.
“Many of them are resorting to going to the West Coast to sell,” he said. “Even when most of the motorcycle dealers could not get products, they sold in Ghana.”
He added that despite the ban, some riders operate in prohibited areas out of desperation.
“They are defying some of these orders just to make a living,” he asserted. “I took a bike in Nnewi. We had to drive past some of the banned areas, and if they are lucky, they will escape, and if not, they will get arrested.”
Beyond the bans, the MOMAN boss lamented the larger economic and industrial challenges confronting the sector.
“It is not easy to set up a factory in Nigeria,” he said. “The cost of running a factory is very expensive. There is no constant power. The dollar rate is high, and people cannot sell.”
He criticised the high import duty on raw materials needed for local production, which he said was discouraging local manufacturing.
He explained: “To produce a motorcycle rim, you will pay 10 per cent to import the raw materials. So, how can you make it? We like to import a complete rim rather than produce it with the attendant overhead costs.”
According to him, the unfavourable policy environment has made it difficult for Original Equipment Manufacturers to transfer their technology to Nigeria.
Commercial motorcycle businesses are often at risk of regulatory showdowns as their operations clash with law enforcement.
On April 29, The PUNCH reported that the Federal Capital Territory Administration in Abuja crushed 601 impounded motorcycles for violating traffic rules.
Mandate Secretary, Transportation Secretariat, FCTA, Dr Elechi Chinedum, explained that the administration crushed the motorcycles following “a regulation of the FCT Administration, which prohibited commercial motorcycles from operating in certain areas of the FCT.”
