Importation of motorcycles in Nigeria dropped by 42.1 per cent year-on-year, according to the 2022 importation bill obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The decline in the importation bill occurred the same year that Kano, Kaduna and Lagos State Governments banned the operation of commercial motorcycles, also known as Okada, on major roads.
The state governments had blamed insecurity and multiple accidents involving motorcycles as reasons for the ban. This led to many losing their source of income.
In the year of the ban wave across these states, data from the statistics bureau showed that the value of motorcycles imported into the country nosedived from N367.39 billion expended in 2021 to N212.64 billion last year.
The NBS Foreign Trade for Goods Statistics report stated that the importation bill took a hit in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2022, dropping by 22 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Okada importation bill closed the fourth quarter of last year with N46.43 billion, down from the N59.63 billion reported in the third quarter of the same year.
In Q3, the National Bureau of Statistics reported that the importation of motorcycles rose by 86 per cent before falling by 22 per cent the following quarter.