Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation Kayode Opeifa says the provisional licence given to taxi drivers under its Traffic Law will stimulate growth, enhance commuters’ confidence and operators’ capacity to create jobs. He spoke with reporters in Lagos. ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE was there.
THE new licence regime is part of the transport reforms began last year. It was introduced to ensure seamless taxi operation. So under the Lagos State Traffic Law 2012 public transport operators must have a licence, while the drivers must regularly be certified by the state’s driver’s institute (LASDRI).
New Law for jobs, wealth
Opeifa said the Traffic Law is to create jobs, wealth and guarantee safety. “We did a survey and we found out that the taxi industry in Lagos is worth N27 billion, but sadly, we have not seen anyone in that sector becoming a billionaire, so something must be wrong and we want to redress this.
“So, with this system, they will have ability to refleet and exist as a corporate entity. They will also have the ability to employ people. They will begin to enjoy so many things from government; they will begin to enjoy group programmes like maintenance yards, access to new vehicles and loans. The vehicle licence that would be given to them is also going to be an asset. So if you need a loan to buy a new vehicle, even a loan to build a house, they can use this licence as collateral. Though this licence is being given to them free of charge by the governor, soon, it would mature to become a valuable asset.”
Examples from U.S.A
For example, in some states in the United States of America, precisely in the City of New York, taxi licence is worth $900,000 to about $1.2 million, so a taxi cab owner has an asset in their pocket. In the city of Chicago, I know same licence is worth between $370,000 to $740,000 and these are assets that they bought either at about $100 or given to them free of charge.
Over the years like the share certificates and landed properties, this certificate too will appreciate in value because it will obey the dynamics of demand and supply and we will regulate to make sure that you will need it to operate, just like the old liquor licence.
When these are in place, consumers will feel more secured and more comfortable. You will be more convinced to leave your vehicles and take a taxi because you will now see a neater, better managed system where the driver is not only making money but generating wealth to take care of himself and employ more people.
Kabukabu… Going, going
Also, for our taxi system, for sometime now we’ve not been allowing entry into the taxi system to prevent those unpainted operators called kabukabu from operating.
Under the new system, there will no longer be kabukabu because they have all been captured in the system as they have registered and would be given licences too. From this moment, all taxis in Lagos, apart from the corporate ones we’ve registered, would have the same yellow colour, but the black stripe will be replaced with the four Lagos colours and will henceforth be known as mega taxis.
Owners of rickety taxis, or those without airconditioning system, would be given two years deadline to retrofit air conditioning system in their cars or replace them. They are given such moratorium because they have been in operation before the commencement of the system. The only condition for these class of vehicles is that they must be road worthy. But new vehicles that want to come into the system must comply strictly to the standards. This ultimately will lead to improved service delivery, and taxi drivers will now have badges and identification cards and their operations are now being guaranteed by the government, which will boost the industry.
Threats of subversion of govt’s intentions
Opeifa does not believe the system can be subverted by political interests since the implementation started in 2007 and the programme is the implementation of the provisions of the state’s traffic law 2012. “We have since started the implementation of some of the provisions of this law; such as regulations 23, 27, 40 and 41. We’ve been meeting with the taxi operators even before the road traffic law came into force.
In 2007, we started the mega taxi system and strengthened taxi services by licencing corporate taxi operations in 2008. We harmonised the system thereafter and this was reflected in the 2012 law. In July 2013, the state’s Executive Council approved for the commencement of the harmonised system and that was why in November 2013, we commenced the documentation process and we thought that would end in January 2014, which would have heralded the take-off of the scheme by May 2014, unfortunately, the taxi drivers do not understand it, so it took quite a lot of stakeholders meeting until both parties agreed. One of the issues we are able to harmonise was the issue of age of the vehicle. While the law stipulates a five-year period for any vehicle in the scheme, the governor in his magnanimity eventually agreed the age be shifted to 12 years for new entrants, while the age criterion was lifted for all old operators.
What gains for the industry?
The commissioner believed the gains of the new taxi scheme will be tremendous. One of the major gains according to him is that the taxi industry will become more regulated and when that happens there will be safety guarantee to attract more investment and industry’s capacity to create jobs would be enhanced. Because all operators are captured on our database issues of security would also be reduced. Passengers will have more confidence in the system and this will lead to improved business and turn around for all operators. We are also envisaging that improved confidence in the taxi system will lead to improved traffic as many would leave their vehicles at hometo patronise the taxi. If we can achieve this, we would have achieved a major plank of our mandate to establish an intermodal transportation system that is safe, reliable and affordable. Taxis would help our people connect from mile to mile especially the short distance, which are presently being covered by okada and tricycles popularly called keke Marwa.
The taxis would phase out this ugly transportation that has left many of our citizens dead and many others injured.
When the industry improves, more taxis will be on the road and taxi fares will come down. You will think the taxis will lose money if that happens, but they will make more money because more people will now use taxis and they would now make more money.
For the government, the major gain would be the creation of more jobs. We would not only be creating jobs, we would be creating wealth. People who hitherto operate taxis at a loss will now be empowered to create wealth and consequently stimulate the economy. Government’s security guarantee would also open new windows of investment opportunity for the industry, so that he N27 billion industry which we met would be more vibrant and can really increase to N50 billion. When this happens, there will be more jobs and more wealth opportunities. Call centres will open to manage their call system, and more modern mechanic workshops would also begin to spring up.
He believes a glut currently exists in the taxi density in the state that the system would address. The total number of taxis required by the state is actually about 10,000 Opeifa said, however how studies showed that we currently have 14,000 operators in the system. What this means is that there is a glut who would otherwise be idle and the industry would not be able to operate maximally. What we have done is to give licences to all of them. All the 14,000 have been given this licence free and they have been made the grand fathers of this new programme. This does not mean that all the 14,000 would be operating, but as the industry becomes more vibrant the entire number would then be fully engaged.
“As the demand for taxis improves, not only would all the 14,000 be engaged, there would be need to issue new licences. We have done a lot of projections that has shown that this would be attained within the next five years. Soon this licence that is given free would be tradable as a means of exchange and people can either sell it or have others buy vehicles under the licence certificate,” he said.
Do beneficiaries have to renew the licence? Opeifa said no. The licence is a once in a lifetime certification to operate public vehicles in the state.
However, they would need to submit their drivers to periodic test and trainings and can have the certificate withdrawn if it was discovered they had compromised on the safety standards set by the government or refused to present any of their operator for mandatory training.
