* Gives N50m to 1,000 operators
* Targets 3,200 beneficiaries
In what can be regarded as bold initiative to ease movement of the people, Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum has launched 610 taxis, tricycles and buses to enhance urban mass transportation in Maiduguri and parts of Jere and Konduga Local Government Areas of the state which fall under the metropolis.
Zulum arrived in Maiduguri after his presidential press briefing in Abuja on Thursday and drove from the airport to Ramat Square in Maiduguri, where he launched 610 means of transportation which combine 100 Toyota LE cars for city taxis, 500 tricycles popularly known as ‘Keke NAPEP’ and 10 Ashok Leyland buses each with capacity for 41 passengers.
While the 10 buses were left under the custody of Borno Express Transport Corporation for intracity services, the 500 tricycles were allocated to 2,000 operators with each tricycle owned by a group of four unemployed persons. The 100 taxis were also allocated to 200 persons with each to be owned by two, making a total of 2,200 to the number of persons who benefited from the tricycles and taxis.
Modalities for the distribution were arrived at after Governor Zulum held meetings with leaders of different associations of Keke NAPEP operators who informed the governor that some of their members form groups to own tricycles and they have their ways of jointly managing them and sharing profits.
Before Zulum’s launch of the mass transportation, the State Commissioner for Transport, Dr. Abubakar Tijjani, assured the governor of effective and efficient supervision to ensure functional deployment to routes in line with the governor’s goal of increasing access to mass transport in the metropolis.
On security integrated into the tricycles and taxis, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of Bexil Computers & Communications, Yusuf Hayatuddeen, said each of the 500 tricycles has digital stickers from which passengers can use smart phones to access essential data of all operators. He also explained that with the stickers, movements of the tricycles will be tracked to ensure each operator only operates within communities they are expected to serve.
Aside the 2,200 persons allocated the tricycles and taxis, Governor Zulum also granted N50million to 1,000 members of different Keke NAPEP operators who did not benefit from the launch, given the fact that the associations have thousands of members, some of whom either own tricycles or work as riders and spare-riders.
The 1,000 persons were to receive N50,000 each as social support.
About 3,200 youths also benefitted from the distribution of the tricycles, taxis and grant.
