Tuesday, January 26, 2021 – Importers and buyers of secondhand cars can now breathe a sigh of relief after the Government of President Uhuru Kenyatta extended the deadline for used car imports from two years to five years as it gears towards promoting locally assembled vehicles.
In a statement on Monday, Treasury CS Ukur Yatani said that the government will phase out secondhand cars by 2026.
The car dealers had up to 2023 to import secondhand vehicles in an earlier plan unveiled in 2019.
The CS wants the motor assembly sector streamlined as second-hand cars make up more than 85 percent of the imported fully built unit (FBUs).
Trade CS Betty Maina added that the government had set aside Ksh600 million to purchase locally assembled or manufactured cars to boost and revive the economy crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic.
In December last year, Uhuru commissioned the local assembly of Proton Saga saloon cars at the Associated Vehicle Assemblers (AVA) in Miritini, Mombasa County.
In January 2021, local carmaker Mobius Motors also opened a new Ksh330 million manufacturing plant in Nairobi.
Mobius Chief Operating Officer Nicolas Guibert said that at least eight units would be produced from the Mombasa Road plant daily.
E! News Blog
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