The Federal Government announced on Wednesday a 50 percent waiver on road transport and a 100percent ticket reduction for rail transit as part of efforts to lessen the effects of the high cost of living in the country, particularly during this holidays.
Hours after the change, Fidet Okhiria, NRC managing director, expressed reservations about the intervention scheme’s cost and expressed hope that the government could cover it, even if he praised the initiative.
“This is not the first time. We did this two years ago. It was effective. I say we’ve yet to recover from that. But what is the government for? The government is to make sure that people have comfort as much as possible,” he said on Thursday’s edition of Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“And we are quite willing and wishing to provide that service. You know, you don’t forget in other developed world, they get this thing either directly or indirectly.
“You recall during the COVID, even private companies were given relief, and those without jobs like in the UK, US, and everywhere…So it’s a good thing that the government considers we should do a free service, but they should also be willing to provide the resources to do it.
“We are hoping this time they are going to give us fuel and those 15 days we are going to provide the free service. They are also willing to provide at least the money we pay to the cleaners and the security.”
The NRC Boss clarified that in addition to other costs, the organisation will purchase diesel to run the trains.
The elimination of fuel subsidy in Nigeria, where most people travel by road, caused the cost of transit to soar.
