AFRIKARS, a technology company, launched a cross-border vehicle marketplace in Nigeria on 23 October, opening auction bidding and funding to Nigerian buyers for the first time. The platform went live at 11:00 WAT at an event in Abuja attended by 89 guests from the automotive, financial services and public sectors. More than 160,000 United States vehicle listings are live on afrikars.com, each with an estimated landed cost covering the vehicle, shipping and import charges in a single figure.
The marketplace addresses a structural problem in Nigeria's vehicle import process. Nigerians importing vehicles from abroad typically agree a price, make payment often in dollars to an intermediary, then face additional costs arriving one at a time: inland transport in the United States, shipping, import duty, the levy, VAT, clearing charges and agent fees. By delivery, the total bears little relation to the initial figure. The economics shifted this year when the Nigeria Customs Service implemented the 2026 Fiscal Policy Measures from 1 July 2026, reducing the import levy on used vehicles from 15 per cent to 5 per cent and on new vehicles from 20 per cent to 10 per cent. A Green Tax Surcharge was introduced at the same time, with vehicles below 2,000cc, mass-transit buses, electric vehicles and locally manufactured vehicles exempted.
On the AFRIKARS platform, a buyer selects a vehicle and pays in naira into a Nigerian account without arranging any foreign transfer. AFRIKARS purchases the vehicle on the buyer's behalf and manages the process through shipping, clearing and delivery, releasing funds in verified stages. The company operates through three entities: AFRIKARS Inc., its Delaware holding company; AFRIKARS Motors LLC, a licensed Texas dealer; and AFRIKARS.NG Ltd, registered as RC 9632671 and based in Asokoro, Abuja. Lanre Taiwo, co-founder and chief operating officer, said with the platform "your money moves only when the car does."
AFRIKARS offers free vehicle history checks to verified users covering a vehicle's United States export history, including title records, accident history and salvage records. This addresses a gap in Nigeria's import process: Nigeria Customs values an imported vehicle for duty purposes and does not read that vehicle's United States title, meaning a car declared a total loss by an American insurer and repaired can clear a Nigerian port as any other vehicle. The company itemises every import cost before a buyer commits. An officer of the Nigeria Customs Service said the system automatically calculates duty and all other charges at the port, describing AFRIKARS as "a very simple process with clearing an imported vehicle."
The company opened its founding membership at the launch event. The first one hundred buyers to bring a vehicle home through the platform lock a service rate of 3.8 per cent, subject to a minimum of 800 dollars, for life on every subsequent purchase. Membership also includes fuel credit of up to N500,000 and vehicle registration handled by the company. Dr Jumoke Oduwole, Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, was represented at the event. AFRIKARS currently sources vehicles from the United States and delivers into Nigeria but has said it intends to open further source markets, naming Dubai, China and Germany, before extending delivery into Ghana, Senegal, Kenya and South Africa.
The company has set its sights on a longer ambition: using the same infrastructure it is building today to move Nigerian-made vehicles out to the rest of the continent tomorrow. Omotoso, co-founder, said: "Africa should not only be where the world's cars end up. It should be where the world's cars are made, and Nigeria has what it takes to lead." A closing panel on local vehicle manufacturing brought together representatives from Nord Automotive and Lanre Shittu Motors to discuss what it will take for Nigeria to build vehicles at scale.