LAGOS — Nigerian vehicle imports jumped 78 per cent in the first five months of 2011 compared to the same period last year, indicating consumer confidence is recovering after national elections, industry officials said on Tuesday.

Car sales in Africa’s most populous nation are a proxy measure for private purchasing power, a leading economic indicator which is not formally available in Nigeria.

Nigerian port figures showed new vehicle imports increased to 18,377 units in the five months to May from 10,324 in the same period of last year, according to Mohan Sethi, general manager at Dana Motors, which imports Kia vehicles to Nigeria.

Industry officials said car demand had started picking up after more than a year of decline as banking reforms forge ahead and lending begins to recover, while the political uncertainty around April’s elections fades away.

“We see people purchasing on cash, so those customers who held back due to uncertainty in the African continent are coming out to purchase,” one dealer said, adding demand was firm and also supported by bank lending.

Car sales in Nigeria took a hit in 2009 and had since been on a downwards trend after credit dried up in sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest economy in the wake of a $4 billion bailout of nine lenders by the central bank.

In 2008 credit sales had accounted for about 22 percent of all vehicle sales in Nigeria, but that percentage dropped to virtually zero after the 2009 bank bailout.

Sethi told Reuters passenger vehicles had grown the most in the five months to 12,000 units from around 7,000 in the same period of 2010. He expected total imports for the industry as a whole to grow 30 percent this year.