The Chief Executive Officer, Cars45, Mr Etop Ikpe, on Tuesday said that the recent policy of border closure by the Federal Government would ensure more transparency and integrity in auto dealings in the country.
Ikpe made the remark on the sidelines of his receipt of “Distinguished Award of Pioneering Automobile Auction in Nigeria’’.
The award was conferred on Ikpe by the Certified Institute of Auctioneers, Nigeria (CIAN) at the Lagos Automobile Auctioneers Summit held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce, Alausa, Ikeja.
The theme of the summit is, “Growth and Development of Auto Auctions Business in Nigeria’’.
Ikpe on the border closure, said that though there might have been changes in the behavioral pattern of auto sales, yet it was not in a negative indicators for those that have legitimate auto dealings.
“The reality is that the border closure has affected the Nigerian auto dealings but not in a negative way. What we need is awareness on transparency in our dealings.
“Before the border closure, the Nigerian Customs have been clamping down on vehicles that are without proper documentation and from then we have the border closure.
“What this tells us is that perhaps we have some dealers who have been trading in vehicles without proper documentation who need to get it right because the policy will affect them negatively,’’ he said.
Ikpe said that Cars45 had in the past maintained the integrity in its auto dealings which made its cars dependable and thereby had attracted more customers to its platform.
“In Cars 45, people come to us because they trust us to have verified documentation for our car dealings, so they are rest assured that our cars have integrity.
“The higher the proper documentation, the higher the value of the cars, because people want trusted merchants.
“We are aware that the border closure has affected some auto dealers but we will advise that they should go along with proper documentation. Because it will cause sales to go down.
“Border closure will ensure more transparency in auto dealing because we should have nothing to hide. There should be integrity in all our auto dealings and sales,’’ he said.
Ikpe, also called on government to ensure transparency in the auctioning of property.
“I am advocating that government officials should come out clean in the auction process of government property to forestall further loss of revenue.
“Millions of money have been lost through a non-transparent auction process and this can be curtailed if government will engage the services of the professionals in handling the auction process.
“The first gain for open auction and dealers is transparency. Open auction is the best strategy because everybody have the option to place a bill on the property while the best deal have it.
“The most important thing is that both government and private organisations should know that it is important to have a transparent system for asset disposal so that we get things right, ” he said.
