USA Africa Dialogue Series - Lagos revenue, vehicles and road worthiness: An exercise in frustration

Lagos revenue, vehicles and road worthiness: An exercise in frustration

January 05, 2016

By Udo Ibuot & Muyinat Akinyemi


SO many unusual things happen every day in our society – and typical of us as Nigerians, we never bother to ask why some of these things happen the way they do.

Maybe because an average Nigerian is more obsessed with the desire to make ends meet, and as such is more preoccupied with issues like the hike in fares and why there are long queues in most filling stations across the country rather than bother about some compelling issues whose consequences are even more lethal. Or better still, may be because ours is a society where we have never felt the need to hold our leaders responsible and accountable for their actions as is obtainable in most developed societies.

Looking at some of these issues and more, one would be forced to reiterate on some of the promises of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State during the electioneering periods in which he promised to run a one day economy among other campaign promises. While the tenets and canons of this concept might not be totally clear and important to a lay man, it is believed that the policy entails running a transparent government in which every citizen of the state would have access to information from public offices and is carried along in the entire democratic process. Well, maybe that's an issue for another day.

Have you ever tried to obtain information on any aspect of the revenue of Lagos State from any of the government's ministries at Alausa? Was it possible to obtain the required information or did you withdraw from the quest? Well, our experience was not a pleasant one. We had set out to find how much revenue accrued to the state government from the registration of vehicles, licences and road worthiness certificates last year. To achieve this, we presented a questionnaire in August 2015 to the Office of the Accountant General of the State at the Ministry of Finance, Alausa, Ikeja. That was the beginning of sorrows that spanned more than three months.

The questionnaire was submitted to Room 212 and we were asked to return after one week for the information. We went and were directed to Room 10, the Financial Intelligence unit to witness a rather frustrating scenario. At first, the officer assigned the task was either not on seat, or at a meeting, at a seminar in Lagos or in Abuja. Later he was said to be on leave. When his colleagues called him to come from home to the office to release the information, he said there was no light to print same for approval by his boss at the ministry. The following week, he was reportedly transferred to another ministry. His colleague who should have provided the information announced rather gleefully that we needed to start a fresh process by filing a new questionnaire for him to start with, and that was the end of the story!

By virtue of provisions of Section 2 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, the Office of the Accountant General of Lagos State, which is under the Ministry of Finance, at the state secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja, is in all material particular, a public office, and it is duty bound to open information at its disposal to public access.

The department's refusal to provide the needed information, in our view, is a violation of provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2011. Of special notice is Section 4 of the Act which states, "Where information is applied for under this Act the public institution to which the application is made shall, subject to sections 6, 7 and 8, of this Act, within seven days after the application is received
(a) Make the information available to the applicant
(b) Where the public institution considers that the application should be denied, the institution shall give written notice to the applicant that access to all or part of the information will not be granted, stating reasons for the denial, and the section of this Act under which the denial is made. Well let's not bore you too much with all these legal terms.
In the extant case, no notice was issued to state reason for the denial, and officials of the Accountant General's Office simply refused to accept responsibility for the provision of information under their care. If the officials had offered any excuse that the information was fully domiciled in another government department, and redirected the request to that department, our quest would have been assuaged.

With this frustrating encounter at the Office of the Accountant General of Lagos State, we had to turn to the internet for any possible information on the issue. Unfortunately, even the Lagos State government that prides itself as the centre of excellence has no current postings on the said matter.

An erstwhile commissioner for transportation in Lagos State, Kayode Opeifa, had declared in April 2015, that there were about two million vehicles on Lagos roads with a density of 224 vehicles per kilometre. Despite his assurances, the unwillingness of state government officials to release information on the revenue base make comparison of these figures pretty difficult. Indeed, the last and only public data from the Lagos State government on motor vehicles revenues was posted on its website in 2010 and is entitled Motor Vehicle Registration Statistics, Lagos State 2009. The 2010 report indicated that 210,798 new vehicles were registered in the state in 2009 compared with 239,992 of the previous year.

Of this figure, 153,781 vehicles were for private use and were in the category of saloons/station wagons. That report also reflected an increase in the number of registered commercial buses from 28,425 in 2008 to 32,490 with mini buses and omni buses accounting for 13,802 and 232 respectively.

The Motor Vehicle Administration Agency, MVAA, was set up by the Lagos State Government in 2007. Its core mandate includes issuing of certificate of title of motor vehicles, renewal of all categories of motor vehicles and drivers licences, in collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, learners permit and other related matters.

The agency also has powers to revoke, suspend or withdraw any licence granted to anyone who infringes on the enabling law.

At the moment, the MVAA performs its responsibilities through 46 licensing stations where owners of vehicles can register and renew their licences.
These centres are located at Agege, Ajeromi-Ifelodun, Alimosho, Apapa, Badagry, Epe, Etiosa, Ibeju-Lekki, Ifako-Ijaye, Ikeja, and Ikorodu. The others include Kosofe, Lagos Island, Lagos Mainland, Mushin, Ojo, Oshodi-Isolo, Shomolu, and Surulere.

The current official rates for motor vehicle licensing, number plates and change of ownership posted on the MVAA website as of October 10, 2013 indicates that registration of number plates in Lagos State costs N12,500 while renewal goes for N10,000. Articulated vehicles number plates are registered for N20, 000 while Out of Series plates go for N40, 000. Fancy number plates (standard) are registered for N80, 000. In the case of motorcycles, fancy number plates go for N30, 000 whereas ordinary number plates costs N3, 000. Number plates replacement (standard) costs N10, 000 while motor dealers plate (special) costs N30, 000 and N25, 000 for the ordinary cadre.

At the present rate, cost of motor vehicles registration which factor in weighing and registration fees is N5, 000 while it costs N1, 250 to register a motorcycle. For change of ownership, a vehicle owner coughs out N2, 500 while a motorcycle owner spends N625 only. Capital gains tax for both motor vehicles and motor cycles cost N625 each while processing of police central motor registry (CMR) costs N1, 000, police inspection and customs processing fees take N500 each.

Processing of vehicle licences is tabulated according to the engine capacities of such vehicles. Thus, vehicles with engine capacity of below 1.6cc cost N1,250 while those with engine capacities of between 1.6cc and 2.0cc cost N1,875. Vehicles with engine capacities of between 2.0cc and 3.0cc are registered for N2,500 while those above 3.0cc cost N2,125. Registration of private motorcycles cost N625 while commercial motorcycles are registered for N1,250.

Vehicle licences for mini-buses/pickups are registered for N2,500, Hiace buses for N3,125 and Coaster buses for N3,250. Licences for tippers and lorries cost N3,750 while those for tankers, trucks and luxurious buses go for N6, 250. Sixteen-tyre trailers are licenced for N8,750 while tractors and bulldozers are licenced for N2,500. In all cases, vehicle alerts issued to those who transact business with the MVAA are charged at the rate of N200.

The MVAA, in collaboration with the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, charges N6, 350 for new driving licences and for the renewal, while learners permit and riders cards attract N50 and N800 respectively. Other revenue areas for the agency include that of registration of motor vehicle dealers and spare parts dealers. The agency charges motor vehicle dealers N100,000 and spare parts dealers N50,000 while procurement of motor registration forms attracts N5,000 each year.

What is absent from this revenue profile is the rate for the national certificate of road worthiness. Experience has shown that payment for this rate varies between N2,500 and N5,000, with some vehicle inspection officers stressing that the difference is calculated on the basis of private and commercial vehicles. However, a posting on the Stop The Bribes website entitled 'Obtaining the National Roadworthiness Lagos State from Vehicle Inspection Officers' indicates that the approved official amount is N1,000 made up of N500 for road worthiness test and the other N500 for renewal fees payable to the Ministry of Transportation on the agency Revenue Code 4390000.

The tendency towards exploitation of applicants for road worthiness may have accounted for the apparently deliberate decision to remove the charge on its acquisition. Otherwise, why would even the vehicle inspection officers not inform anyone about the rate and duration of the road worthiness certificates? On the road worthiness certificates, it is learnt that the holder carries it for a period of six months even though some of the vehicle inspection officers say it is for twelve months.

However, if we work with the 2009 data of the Motor Vehicles Administration Agency, MVAA, we can infer that the Lagos State government would have earned about N311, 638,128 from the 166,207 saloon/station wagon cars registered that year, and N558, 775 from the 22,351 mini buses. An estimated N210, 798, 000, would have been raked from the national road worthiness certificates at the official rates of N1, 000 each in 2009. In the compilation of current figures, it is apparent that the rates might reflect a downward slope as there appears to have been a fall in the number of vehicles bought and registered in the country in the last couple of years. Even the 2009 data suggested this trend.

This calls for sincere intervention on the part of the Lagos State government and if Governor Ambode really meant to live up to expectations of running a one day economy, then his best bet would be to make transparency his watchword. To start with, the bureaucratic bottlenecks that characterizes most public offices needs to be broken down. This would not only resuscitate people's trust in his administration but would have his name permanently written in the golden book of time.


*Messrs. Ibuot & Akinyemi, post-graduate students of LASU School of Communications, wrote from Lagos.

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