THE Lagos State Government has said e-hailing operators would be paying N20 as Road Improvement Fund, on each trip their drivers make in a day starting from August 27.
The government in a statement signed by the chief press secretary to the governor, Gboyega Akosile stated that the Lagos government and e-hailing operators have agreed on the new regulations.
“The issues surrounding the new Lagos State Government’s guidelines for the regulations of e-hailing taxi services have now been put to rest, following a meeting between the state government and representatives of the ride-hailing operators on Friday.”
Dr. Frederic Oladehinde, the commissioner for transportation disclosed that the state government and the operators had unanimously adopted the new regulations after all parties jointly reviewed and fine-tuned some of the contentious items in the framework.
He said the new regulations were not initiated by the government to extort the operators and drivers in the business; he stressed that the government was moved by the necessity to regularise the ride-hailing operations in line with security measures, adding that the new regulations will now take off from August 27, instead of August 20 initially announced by the government.
By implication, the operators now have an additional seven-day extension to comply with the government’s regulations.
Oladehinde said the state government and the operators had reached an agreement on the controversial service tax, which is to be known as Road Improvement Fund.
He further said that the e-hailing operators would be paying N20 as Road Improvement Fund and it is to be levied on each trip all their drivers make in a day.
The commissioner said Governor Sanwo-Olu offered a duty incentive to the operators by reducing their statutory operational licensing fee and renewal fee by 20 percent, implying that each e-hailing firm will now pay N8 million per 1,000 cars fresh licensing and renewal, instead of N10 million initially announced.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.