The Nigerian Government has announced the approval of a new policy for tollgates across the country.
This was disclosed by Nigeria’s minister of works and housing, Babatunde Fashola on Wednesday after a federal executive council meeting.
News360 Info gathered that the executive council granted approval of the ‘Federal Roads and Bridges Tolling Policy and Regulations’.
The policy states that Nigerians are to pay tolls for using any federal road in the country. Only Bicycles, Tricycles, Motorcycles, Diplomatic vehicles, Military and Paramilitary vehicles are exempted.
Roads users are to pay the following: Cars: N200, SUVs: N300, Private Buses: N300, Commercial Buses: N150, Luxury Buses, and Trucks: N500.
It will be an Open Tolling system (just like the one that used to be in existence in the country), instead of a Closed Tolling system. (A Closed Tolling system means that you pay per distance traveled (‘distance-dependent’), while Open Tolling means you pay a fixed/flat rate that is not dependent on distance traveled).
According to the Honorable Minister, the Federal Highways Act vests the power to toll (Federal Roads) in the Minister responsible for roads, but the implementation of any tolling policy/regime involves many processes and multiple agencies, and therefore requires multi-stakeholder collaboration.
According to the Minister, it is important to stress that even with this policy now approved, tolling is not going to start immediately. He very clearly said that Tolling will not start “until the roads are motorable.” This policy is a necessary condition for the implementation of Tolling, and it is now for people to start getting familiar with it and for relevant stakeholders to start using it as a basis for their financial modeling and investment analysis, ahead of the eventual rollout of Toll Plazas.
