FEDERAL ROAD SAFETY CORPS ( FRSC), NIGERIA EXTENSION OF DEADLINE ON NUMBER PLATES RENEWAL IS A POSSIBILITY-CHIDOKA Since his assumption of office as the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Osita Chidoka and his team has been working on striving to institute a decent road culture among Nigerians. In this interview with MIKE OCHONMA of BUSINESSDAY, he takes a look at some of the developments within the agency including contemporary issues like the transition from old to new number plates and the driver’s licence. The status of driver’s licence presently. Over 70,000 licensing process not completed. We sent out 70 bulk SMS last week reminding vehicle owners that their registration is not yet complete, that they have valid vehicle insurance, MOT and other necessary documents that are supposed to accompany a vehicle upon final registration. I am sure many road users are asking, what do we do and how do we do it? So giving money to somebody to go and get you a number plate now, if you don’t verify the information, you can fall into the hand of fake people. Fake insurance is not working anymore, because all the insurance data is here, the FRSC is seeing all the validly issued insurance. Names of Insurance Companies. We have a total of 48 registered insurance companies as approved by NAICOM. In fact, we have an agreement with the Nigerian Insurance Association (NIA) whereby we convinced them to build a data system that uploads all the validly issued insurance to us and we use them to run verification. So anybody you see that has registered a car and has proof of ownership certificate that is not printed, that person’s registration is not complete. Once it is printed, it means that your insurance, everything is valid. The system will not print it if it is not valid. Hand-held devices by FRSC Road Marshals Anybody that is driving on the road now with a number plate that is not produced by FRSC or in the case of Lagos produced by the Lagos State plant as agreed by the FRSC, that number plate is invalid. Any individual that procures number plate from any non-FRSC source, the number is invalid and should be considered as fake number. Where Nigerians can find genuine number plates If you go to the FRSC website on vehicle registration, you would see the list of all the offices in all the states where you can procure valid plate numbers. At the moment, there are about 60 driver’s license centres; we are hoping to make it 120 by December this year and by the end of next year, it will be about 240 centres. Truck Inspection Centres We want to come up with truck inspection centres on the critical highways. Every truck in Nigeria must go through annual comprehensive inspection to remain valid to ply on the roads and it will be FRSC operated centres on the highways for truck inspection. Truck driver training centres are being planned We are trying to partner with some state governments to build truck driver training centres so that we can build up a new generation of truck drivers and not those who learnt it by being motor boys. They are conductors and after three months, they will start driving trucks; so we want to have a whole new culture whereby if you don’t attend those training schools, you will not be given a commercial driver’s licence. On September 4, 2013, we are having the last in the series of stakeholders’ meeting for the introduction of mandatory speed of speed limiters on all commercial vehicles. After the stakeholders’ meeting, we will all set a date for implementation. How FRSC will install the speed limiter device The speed limiter is a device. ABC Transport has implemented it in all its buses, Total Plc is going to implement with all their contractors. It will limit you not to exceed 100 kilometres per hour so that once you press the accelerators pedal and the speedometer climbs to 100, it will not go further. So it is going to become mandatory. The intra-state commercial buses and speed limiters All of them are included; there will not be any exception as long as the vehicles are plying on the Nigerian roads and it is commercial buses carrying passengers. If you don’t comply and implement it, once we impound the vehicle, we are taking such offenders to court for prosecution. The equipment will be sold and installed in the vehicles by FRSC accredited sales agents whom we are sure will sell genuine ones. So many countries have started using the speed limiters. Kenya has done it and the result has been overwhelming in most countries where it has been used. Drivers abusing the equipment by altering the setting Those who are installing it are also smart people. They don’t install it so that you can disconnect. To disconnect it, you will damage your car so it is not something that is fixed that you can remove the pipe and then when you finish, you put it back; no. It works with the brain of the vehicle. So if you tamper with it, you mess with your vehicle. Reason for the focus on commercial vehicles That is where we want to start because they carry passengers, and then individuals can do it for themselves. We believe that people will make conscious effort on their own safety, but if need be we will increase and expand the scope of implementation. We think that for somebody who carries other passengers: 16,18,40,50 passengers, if not more, should at least maintain some minimum safety standards for those who have handed over their lives to you. The time for the take-off of the speed limiter device We will give enough time for them to comply with the directive when it is put in place. That is why we are having stakeholders’ meeting. We have been having it for quite some time now and for over one year, we have been meeting with stakeholders and we have agreed on the modalities and the format, we have agreed on everything, it is not going to be with immediate effect; no. They are going to be allowed time to implement and we want to see more of self regulation. FRSC and their global rating in recent times You are talking about the World now. The World Bank has recognised FRSC as a lead agency; I am not the one that said it. The institution has said this is the best example of a lead agency in matters of road safety campaign initiatives in Africa and the result has been impressive. According to the World Bank on FRSC, “We have seen growth in their staff strength, their budget, operations and all the five pillars of the United Nation.” They said FRSC is active in all the five pillars of the UN and they recommend us to other countries to emulate. At the moment, Sierra Leone has asked us to help them and we are helping them to write their laws and we are going to send some staff there to train their staff. They will be there for two years to set up the national road safety authority in Sierra Leone. Other countries are also asking us for technical assistance. So we are a major reference point in Africa especially when it comes to issues of road safety. FRSC partnership with AutoReg They work for various state governments, so we try to collate the data that they use into our system, so we have a very good partnership. They don’t work for us, but they upload their data for us. The ability of FRSC to guarantee standardization, uniformity or originality of number plates from the three plants production centres. It is the same equipment; one person is managing the three plants, and the head of the plant and head of the three plants nationwide. So he is a staff. So everything is synchronized. Number plates with stains that make it look as if they are not original They are not fake. They may only be from Lagos and you know Lagos State produces number plates for us. FRSC has almost 22 years of experience of producing number plates. We are fairly good at it. Of course, sometimes there are errors; sometimes we recall the number plates and re-issue them. Plate numbers actually have a life span. After five years, the retro-reflectivity goes down; so people actually need to get their numbers when they are no more reflective. It is for their own safety that plates are re-issued whenever the reflectivity goes down so that if a car is coming behind, the driver of that car will need to see you. In some countries, it is mandatory that after five or six years of licensing a car, the owner needs to change the number plate; just buy a new plate. The relationship between FRSC and joint Tax Board (JTB) We (FRSC) are members of Joint Tax Board which is association of all the states’ board of internal revenue chairmen. So everything that is related to the cost, the pricing, the sale of number plates is determined by JTB for uniformity. The purpose of JTB is to determine national uniformity. It is not like some states are selling number plates for N7,000, some are selling N12,000. So they standardize prices and make sure that FRSC monitors the process. They also verify cost structure. We don’t make the number plates for profit; it is meant for the states and just for the purpose of centralizing that process. Before now, your state used to issue your number and you go to a sign writer and he will write it for you. So what we have simply done is to take over the job of the sign writers and the JTB regulates it. So we did not take over any state function; no state was producing number plates before now. The job we took was that of the sign writers. How much percentage of JTB revenue comes to FRSC They pay for the plates. We did not take over any state function. Then it was a private thing and that is why armed robbers can write a number and put it on a vehicle. Anybody could just get a plate, even when the state has not issued you a number; a sign writer can help you with the series of numbers that he knows and write a number and give it to you. So now, what we have done is that we changed the process and we have put additional security in place. It became a manufactured product, so it is not easy to duplicate. Once you see the fake ones, you will recognize them; even by looking at it, you will know immediately. This is because, it is a process; it is a manufacturing process that has aluminum sheet and security devices. What the number plate personalization is all about What this means is that you are tying the number to the person and not to the vehicle anymore because before now you tie the number to a vehicle. So Mike Ochonma has registered this vehicle, he uses it for two years and then sells it to Osita Chidoka and uses it for another one year and then sells it to Bisi Kazeem. When the car commits an offence and they arrest Bisi, sometimes you go back to the state licensing office and the number is still in the name of Mike, then you go to Mike and say your car was found with somebody else and he says ‘No, I have sold it three years ago.’ And they ask him, ‘Who did you sell it to?’ He then says, ‘I don’t know; I parked it outside and somebody bought it.’ So FRSC is saying no; when you sell a car, take away the number plate. If you want to go and relicense that number to another vehicle, do so, or you go to the Board of Internal Revenue and say, ‘I am no more using this number, take it back.’ Even if you don’t know who you sold the car to, it does not matter anymore because the person has to get a new number. So we care enforcing that change of ownership should not just be if you like or not, that people would want to dissociate themselves from a car at a certain point. So when a car is used to commit an offence, the name we find on the document is actually the owner, not the person that will tell us, ‘Oh yes, its somebody’s car; I bought it from a car dealer and I continued with that number’. This time around people will no more sell their cars with the number. That is the whole idea. Who fixes the price of the number plates and driver’s license The Joint Tax Board (JTB). The cost to change or replace from your old to new number plate is N10,000 while fresh registration is N15,000. Why the registration can cost as much as N25,000 or more This is because registering a car includes other costs, not just for number plate. That is where the confusion came from. People heard that a number plate is N10,000 or N15,000 and they hold on to that, but they forget that registering a car requires you to have road worthiness certificate, licensing fees and all other necessary documents. So if you put all that together; it takes you to about N25,000 or N30,000 in some states to register it or less depending on the state you registered it. So there should be a distinction between the cost of a plate number and the cost of registering a car: These are two distinct things. Are trucks, commercial and motorcycles number plate same with private? Yes. Motorcycles are only one number. They do not come in pairs and they are sold at N3,000. Trucks cost more. Weight bridges to check over-loading That is already being done; the Ministry of Works is already doing something about that. It has fixed one at Lokoja just before you enter Murtala Muhammad Bridge to crossover to Idah side. So the weight bridges are going to be done by Ministry of Works across the country. One of the conditions we gave them is that they will put a barrier limit on the road. So what the toll bridges used to do, the barrier will do for us. Once a vehicle is above a certain height, it will be forced to pass through it, that without it, people will avoid the weight bridges. So that is what is delaying it now. They did not have it in their budget, but now they have agreed to put the height limiters and all the roads that will have been identified. Exemption for any type of vehicle There will be no exemption including luxury buses, articulated vehicles tankers and trailers. It is the load in the vehicle that we are measuring including human beings and whatever is on the vehicle. Causes for the delay of permanent driver’s license issuance So many issues can be attributed to that, but we are resolving them. We hope that by end of September, all issues relating to delays in bringing in the permanent card will be sorted out. Partly, it had to do with the expansion of the server and the system that is ongoing; that has slowed down our capacity. Once that expansion work is completed, the permanent card will be returning in about two weeks. Possibility of too much pressure on FRSC with the September 30 deadline That is the reason why we are asking JTB to meet to determine the issue of the deadline considering that this work was envisaged to have been done last year, but the shutting down of our operation by the National Assembly delayed the expansion programme. So that is what we are recovering from now and it will be completed by September. Deadline extension It is a possibility Challenges of first four years in office I don’t know how to describe challenges, but I must say that I’m grateful to Nigerians for giving me this opportunity to serve in this role because it is actually a pleasure for me; it is not work, it is a passion. I enjoy what I do, I like what I’m doing and I have always wanted to add value in the area of safety on our roads; I studied transportation and I have been worried about the aftermath, the impact on people and the environment. Having gotten this opportunity, I’m excited, when I wake up in the morning; I look forward to going to work because I can see areas where one can add value. The last four years has been exciting, it has been driven largely by innovation, and we have been attempting one thing after the other. Sometimes my teams are overworked and stressed because I’m always moving from one thing to the other. The next two years offers opportunity to consolidate on them and prepare for other people to continue from where I have stopped in improving safety on Nigerian roads. The foundation has been properly laid and I’m sure people brighter than me will come who will see new opportunities to be innovative. Bu more importantly, they will have the basic tools to progress which I have provided. Tools available on assumption of office A lot of things where not in place but like I said, it is the Nigerian story. Emphasizing challenges is always boring to me. What I’m asking is what have we done with what we have, like the IT infrastructure that we have today for supporting decision making; the number of vehicles and ambulances that we have today; we did not have the manpower, the budgetary allocation, so in the last four years, all key indices of FRSC have actually seen an improvement. All these improvements have led to the reduction in cases of crashes that we have seen on the road; reduced number of deaths on our highway and so on. SOURCE: BUSINESSDAY of Monday, 9 September 2013 vol.11. no.175 pg 34-35.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:16:03 +0000
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