Operators of Lagos State Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) have decried the high cost of running the service, blaming high cost of diesel and foreign exchange as major constraints.
Both the operators and regulator told The Guardian that the noticeable reduction in the number of buses is not unconnected with the high cost of maintenance, price of diesel and other accessories that are imported into the country.
Public Relation Officer (PRO), Primero, one of the operators, Mutiu Yekeen, said despite the challenges facing the operation, the firm is committed towards working for the interest of the society, and to meet the customers’ needs.
He said: “There are numerous challenges faced by BRT operations in Lagos. One is the issue of exchange rate. The exchange rate when we started operation in 2015 was about N150 to one dollar, today it’s over N750 to a dollar in official rate.
“A tyre we were buying that time at the rate of N50,000, now is over N250,000, and we use six tyres for one BRT bus, making us spend over N1.5 million on one BRT and the tyres may not last more than three to four months due to the nature of our roads.
“Another challenge is the price of diesel. When we started, we were buying diesel at N120 per litre, but today we are buying it at N1,000 per litre and we are still charging affordable prices.
“It’s very challenging, but because we have public interest at heart, we are also supporting the government to achieve its objective in terms of public transport, that’s why we keep running. If not, the business would have collapsed.”
On maintenance, he said: “The cost of maintenance is very high. We also need to change oil and sometimes, the gear. The cost of a BRT bus in 2015 was around N45 million to N50 million, but today, it’s not less than N150 million per one. When a driver damaged a newly revamped engine of a BRT bus in 2021, we spent not less than N25 million to fix it.” On the number of buses still running, he said: “We have over 100 BRT buses running currently, but we just got a few very functional ones.
“We have more than 200 million people boarding BRT yearly.” Also, spokesperson for the regulator, Kola Ojelabi, said several buses are out of operation due to lack of spare parts, especially buses with major accidents, which are not readily available locally and the exchange rate for procuring them is quite high.
According to him, this poses a challenge in managing the maintenance costs, and an easy way to recover some cost would be through fare increase and government granting subsidy
