Public transporters in the country said they are seriously feeling the crippling effects of their businesses due to the ravaging coronavirus pandemic, if the federal government does not quickly intervene with some kind of grants for inter-state movements on long distance passenger transportation.
Expressing this view recently, Prince Emeka Mamah, first vice-chairman of Public Transport Owners of Nigeria Association (PTONA), lamented that, the total ban on interstate transportation can lead to the collapse of their businesses if there is no quick intervention in the form of assistance.
Last month, PTONA, an umbrella body of inter-state road transporters across the country, had in a letter to the vice president Yemi Osinbajo and chairman of the Presidential Economic Sustainability Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic, appealed for urgent government financial support to pull the transport owners back from the brink.
Signed by the national president, Isaac Uhunmwagho and the secretary, Frank Nneji, the association’s letter implored government to set up a N20 billion COVID-19 intervention fund with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to assist inter-state passenger operators nationwide.
PTONA also appealed to the vice president to grant its members special concession on import duties payable on buses from 35 percent to 10 per cent; as well as direct the Central Bank of Nigeria to prevail on all commercial banks to restructure all term loans for businesses like inter-state passenger transport affected by the pandemic.
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According to Mamah, “This total ban on inter-state transportation can lead to the collapse of our businesses if the Federal Government does not quickly intervene with some kind of grants. In fact, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for inter-state transporters, whose thousands of buses have been ‘locked down’ for nearly two months, to recover without incentives, even after the COVID-19 measures have been relaxed”.
Mamah lamented that apart from losing daily returns, the mini and luxury buses which have been parked at the respective stations of the members since the inter-state lockdown was announced last March are procured on loans from banks are accumulating arrears of re-payment and interests.
“Having been parked for weeks, these buses not only attract arrears of unpaid loans and interests, they are also incurring maintenance costs. And by the time they are to resume operations – and nobody knows when – we will need to spend heavily on replacing tyres and other items, before returning them to the road.
The transport owners however commended the concerted efforts of the federal government, the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, and the various state governments towards combating the pandemic.
He advised that road transportation which is the nation’s most popular means of movement, should not be allowed to be one of the casualties of the global scourge, even as he expressed the fear that it would take the sector more than a year to recover.
The chairman of Ifesinachi Industries Ltd argued that to ground thousands of buses for many weeks without palliative measures has social implications, because every bus has at least a driver and other people directly or indirectly depend on its operation for their livelihood.
“Britain, which is one of the countries worst hit by coronavirus, depends a lot on road transportation, and they didn’t starve the transporters and the drivers of palliatives. The country has provided about a million pounds for the transporters to maintain their vehicles, including washing and disinfecting them before they are back on the road. This does not include palliatives to the drivers and their families.
“Government should consider the fact that when the prohibition on inter-state passenger transportation is lifted, we are still going to face the challenge of observing social distancing, which means carrying fewer passengers and its effect on the recovery of our businesses.”
According to him, a situation where 15-seater mini buses admit only seven or eight travellers, and luxury buses reduce their passengers from 59 to 25 or 30 to ensure distancing, will hamper recovery from the effects of the present ban, unless government extends considerable incentives to the owners.
