Commuters in Nigeria’s commercial city of Lagos, especially those patronising the Lagos Bus Services Limited (LBSL), operators of state-owned high capacity buses, will from August 1, spend more on transportation.
This is because the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has approval about 46 percent fare increase on bus services on all the routes operated by the LBSL
With the approval, a ride, for example, from Ikeja to Berger, will now cost a passenger N150 as against N100. Similarly, from Oshodi to Obalende, N300 becomes N200; Ikeja to Ogba, moves to N150 from N100. Also, Alapere to TBS goes up to N200 from N150, among others routes. However, Oshodi to Ajah remains N500.
The new increase, according to the industry regulator- Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), takes effect from August 1, 2020.
Governor Sanwo-Olu assented to the upward fare review following a plea by the bus operating company on the need to sustain its operation following the negative effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on public bus transportation.
Besides, Sanwo-Olu also approved LBSL’s request to increase the number of passengers per bus from 20 to 42 in strict observance of updated Covid-19 protocol as directed by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in the operation of public transport, while ensuring all other measures are in place.
Equally, the governor granted LBSL buses permission to access all the dedicated bus lanes in Lagos State, thus making its journey time predictable on corridors with bus dedicated lanes.
LBSL had argued that conveying no more than 20 passengers per bus, per trip had resulted in only 14 percent utilisation of the bus load factor, leading to 72 percent drop in revenue while running costs remained fairly the same.
It stated that the fare increase would improve LBSL’s operational efficiency and place the bus operating company on the path to sustainability in the medium to long term.
