• Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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Enugu govt to partner with tricycle operators

Enugu govt to partner with tricycle operators

Enugu State government has expressed strong will to partner with tricycle operators in the state to ensure security of lives and property of both the operators and the passengers within the urban and rural areas.

The permanent secretary, ministry of Transport, Ogbonna Idike stated this at the official lunch of PAYCOM Nigerian (Opay), a new digital ICT, tricycle (Keke) management company in Enugu recently.

He said that government is interested because of the security of lives and property the organization tends to bring into the system which aimed at helping to checkmate the Keke operators in the state using the ICT to control their operations in the state.

He however frowned at the rate keke operators disobey traffic laws and warned that the ministry would not take it easy with any of the operators who fail to follow the lay dawn traffic rules in the state.

“I am aware that most of you Keke operators in the state do not have driving permit to operate, even when His Excellency, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi brought down the cost from N18,000 to N6,000, and made it easy for you to pay and collect within hours after payment, yet many of you have not done that,” he said.

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He advised the tricycle operators to make good use of the opportunities provided by the state government to equip themselves with all the necessary thing needed of them to operate in the state, pointing out that the state still remains one of the states that collect ticket as low as N150 per a day against others who collects between N400 to N1000 from operator per a day.

He also said that registering with the new company has not in any way replaced the leadership of Keke operators of the job of ministry of transport in the state.

Earlier the Director O-rider, Paycom Nigeria Limited, Moses Awolowo who represented the company said that the company is presently operating in about 12 states and intends to spread to other states.

He said that the operation of Opay was to create jobs by adding dignity and respect for the operators who do not need to run around looking for passengers again but use their Android phones to link with customers close to them.

He said that Keke operators who register with Opay would be trained to be ICT compliant and given an Android phone which customers would use to link them up. Awolowo noted that the system helps to check crimes committed by keke operators to a large extent, settle quarrels because the phone records the areas covered and charge the passenger, the company also pay the operators through their wallets daily.