Lagos Sate Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode
at the weekend said that the proposed Bus Reform Initiative aimed at giving
Lagosians an integrated public transportation system would kick start this year
with a sinking fund of N30billion.
Governor Ambode, who spoke to
journalists, said his administration had identified the challenges Lagosians go
through on a daily basis commuting via public transportation, saying the reform
was aimed at providing a viable alternative.
He said the Bus Reform Initiative is
a three-year plan aimed at introducing over 5000
air-conditioned buses to
replace the yellow commercial buses, popularly called Danfo, which according to
him, was no longer befitting for the State’s mega city status.
“We decided that the best thing is
to allow the yellow buses go and so the Bus Reform Initiative itself is a
three-year plan of 2017 to 2019 in which it intends to bring in new buses of
5,000 units in the three-year plan.
“The bigger size buses will take 70
people and then the medium range buses will take 30 people. We believe that the
middle range buses will be supplied up to 70 per cent of the total volume which
will amount to about 3,600 units and then the longer range in that direction,”
he said.
Speaking on how the Government
intends to fund the initiative, the Governor said that his administration would
launch a public transportation infrastructure bond of N100billion that would
span between seven to 10 years, revealing that the Government already has a
sinking fund which it intends to put into the bond.
“You are aware that the Federal
Government paid the refund of the Paris Club Loan last December and this is a
money belonging to the State Governments due to the refund and so Lagos State
decided not to touch its share of the Paris Club refund. Right now, we have a
sinking fund of N14.5billion that is already put in place to drive this public
transportation bond.
“We refused to touch our money and
we believe that the second batch of the refund should be paid next month and
eventually that will be N29billion that we will have. I will add another
N1billion to it making it N30billion to kick start this initiative.
“By the time we have N30billion as
sinking fund to drive the bus initiative against the bond of N100billion that
we want to put into the market, there will be that credibility and credence
that the bond will drive itself and that is the whole idea,” Governor Ambode
said.
He said aside the bond, his
administration also intends to give out franchise to interested stakeholders in
multiple of 50 buses each, 100 buses, 200 buses and above, explaining that what
is required is a down payment of 25 per cent of the buses.
“So, these are bankable projects as
we have a sinking fund and so our exposure as a government is just technically
75 per cent. So, from the kind of machinery we want to use to run the buses,
there are no cash takings, everything is automated and obviously, who ever has
a franchise, whoever drives, they have the recourse to take part of the money
while part of the intake also goes to the repayment of the facility and so it
is a comprehensive template,” the Governor said.
He, however, said that the State
Government expects the Danfo drivers, who would be absorbed into the new
initiative to adapt accordingly, saying that the transport unions would be
expected to take ownership to ensure sustainability.
“This is just a paradigm shift where
Danfo drivers move from being addressed as Danfo drivers but as professional
drivers. So, we will buy back the Danfos from them and it becomes the seed money
to become eventual owners of those buses in the years the facility is spread.
“It is something we have been
working on in the last one year and we don’t come out to say we are going to do
anything without working properly on it. It is process and now we are at the
advocacy process.
“We intend to start to go to the bus
parks and all that to educate people and the integral part of these buses is
what you see us trying to provide bus terminals, Laybys, bus stops. They are
coming in pieces but they will become a complete cup of delivering this
particularly product when we put them together,” he explained.
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