Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu yesterday launched the ‘Lagos Ride Transport Initiative’, with 1,000 new GAC cars rolled out in the first phase.
The taxi hailing initiative, operated on a lease-to-own basis, is a component of the government’s multimodal transportation blueprint, executed under the Traffic Management and Transportation pillar of the THEMES agenda.
The initiative is a partnership between Lagos State-owned IBILE Holdings Limited and CIG Motors Company Limited.
Operators are required to pay about N1.9 million down payments, covering the 20 per cent equity of cost of vehicle, registration and insurance. Each car being used in the scheme comes with technology-enabled security features that monitor every journey undertaken.
Sanwo-Olu said the state had moved another step forward in its drive to develop an efficient transportation model, in tune with modernity and comfort.
He said the aim was not to run existing hailing ride operators out of business, but to offer safer alternatives and clear the roads of rickety cars.
The scheme, he added, would provide opportunities to the operators to become owners within three to four years.
The governor said: “The need to provide better, dignifying and more rewarding means of transportation and livelihood for unemployed and underemployed population gave birth to the new ‘Lagos State Taxi Scheme’, which will be operated on a lease-to-own basis. Under this arrangement, a beneficiary will be provided a new car, which will become the driver’s property after completing payment of its subsidised cost.
“This scheme will complement the bus services, which are making significant impact in the lives of our people; the water transport service, which is recording unprecedented patronage, as well as the Blue and Red Line Rail services, which are on course to begin operations between the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2023.”
Sanwo-Olu said an automobile assembly plant being set up in Lagos – another component of the partnership with CIG Motors, is 60 per cent completed, with anticipated launch and start of operations expected in September.
He said: “What we are witnessing today is that Lagos is moving away from the era of rickety ‘kabu kabu’ to new, comfortable and safe transport system. The multiplier effect of this initiative on job creation, youth employment and economic growth and development in the state cannot be overstated.”
Commissioner for Transportation Frederic Oladeinde described the scheme as another milestone achievement by the government.
The Nation
