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  • Business
  • Updated: May 02, 2021

BRT Operator Decries Inflation, Lack Of Forex To Import Vehicles’ Parts

BRT Operator Decries Inflation, Lack Of Forex To Import Vehi

Primero Transport Services Limited, on Sunday, said that inflation and its inability to access forex to import vehicle parts’ were hindering its efforts at reviving its faulty buses and providing seamless services to its passengers.

Fola Tinubu, the Managing Director of Primero Transport Services Limited, the operator of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Lagos, disclosed this to the press.

Tinubu was reacting to challenges facing the firm in its bid to provide world-class services to its potential commuters.

He noted that the firm had been struggling in the last six years to make ends meet.

He said that the government’s regulation on fares without considering inflations and the provision of subsidy had crippled the revenue-generating ability of the firm to provide world-class services.

According to him, the firm cannot also access forex from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to import parts to revive most of its faulty buses.

READ ALSO Nigeria Records Highest Inflation Rate In Four Years – Report

Tinubu said: “The cost keeps galloping. The price of diesel alone has gone up by almost 41 percent between January and end of April.

“We were buying a litre of diesel late last year for about N181.90, it is between N255 and N258 a litre now.

“This means our cost is going up, the government cannot cap our revenue-generating ability (by fixing fares) and leave our cost to keep galloping. It’s a recipe for disaster.

“Also, we want to import vehicle parts into the country so we can fix our faulty buses. But, the CBN told us that they don’t have a foreign exchange for parts.’’

“The reality is that if costs keep going up every time naira loses its value, our cost will shoot up because we do not manufacture anything in this country. With this situation, it will be hard to provide a transport system of a world-class economy.”

According to him, if the inflation continues and the CBN cannot provide forex at the official rates, the firm that had employed about 2,000 people and helped the economy may not be able to sustain such a staff strength.

Tinubu urged the state government to either give the private sector a free hand to operate or provide subsidies as it is being done in other countries.

READ ALSO: More Nigerians Lost Their Jobs In February 2021 – Report

“Transport is the backbone of the economy, people have to move from point A to point B. If the government wants to make people’s lives easier and does not want us to charge more than the current fares, it must be ready to subsidise our cost of operations.

Tinubu said: “The sad fact is, if we want a world-class service, it has to be paid for. We can either stay with our `danfo’ and `okada’ mode of transportation, or we go the way other countries are doing it.

“Other countries are doing it well and it is not about rocket science.

“The company has been struggling for the past six years, trying to figure things out and to make it work."

The managing director, however, said that he was aware that the commuters did not want an increase in the bus fares.

He added that this is because most of those that fall within the BRT boarding category are low-income earners who are finding it tough to survive.

READ ALSO Security, Other Factors Key To Tackling High Inflation Rate — Expert

He said that if Primero were not put on a solid financial footing, it would affect everybody.

“God forbids, if anything happens to Primero, the commercial bus drivers are going to be charging as high as N1,000 as transport fare per passenger from Ikorodu to TBS and people will have no choice but to pay.

“I fully understand the plights of the masses because all over the world people spend between 15 percent and 25 percent of their income on transportation. But in Nigeria, it is between 50 percent and 75 percent.

“For somebody who has spent between 50 percent and 75 percent of his or her income on transportation,  if you want to increase fare by N50, he will oppose it; but the question is how do we make it work?’’

According to him, “If we want a world-class service, it has to be paid for. The employees have to be paid, the diesel suppliers have to be paid and the parts’ suppliers also have to be paid. All of these things have to be paid for,’’ he added.

The managing director said that the price of vehicle parts imported within the last eight months by the firm had now increased by about N400 million because of the naira to the dollars exchange rate.

He, however, said that the firm was restructuring and looking inward so that it could continue to provide a more effective and efficient service that every commuter will be proud of. 

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