Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCT) has through its Transportation Secretariat generated over N3.4 billion from vehicle licensing, Change of Ownership and sundry fees from various defaulters in 2019, representing 22.46 percent increment in its profile compared to 2018.
The acting secretary, Transportation Secretariat, Mrs Alice Odey-Achu, stated this while briefing news men Tuesday at the secretariat conference hall in Abuja.
She said: “The revenue generated between 1st January 2019 to 31st December, 2019 is put at N3,417,240,921.67( Three Billion, four hundred and seventeen million, two hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and twenty-one naira and sixty-seven kobo) only.”
She also lamented that out of 103,919 vehicles presented for inspection, only 48,274 vehicles passed the road worthiness test, which represents 46.45 percent of the total value. She noted that the secretariat was working towards raising its revenue generation profile in 2020.
She stated further that the inspecting officers has established that the number of vehicles that failed the road worthiness were fairly used vehicles that came into the country with multiple defects.
She said: “The number of vehicles that failed the test is higher due to the following reasons; most imported fairly used vehicles ‘ tokumbo’ have one or more defects that are detected during the computerised inspection which ordinarily cannot be detected during physical inspection .
“Poor vehicle maintenance culture of most drivers and bad roads network in the suburbs also contributed to some vehicle components becoming defective.
“In order to boost the capacity of the Directorate of Road Traffic Services in discharging its core mandate of ensuring effective road traffic movement, minimise road crashes, stimulate clean environment and generate revenue for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the administration within the year employed over 200 new staff to beef up the operation and enforce the observance of the FCT Road Traffic Rules.
“Just recently, the FCT minister flagged off 22 operational vehicles, one number ambulance and 60 patrol motorcycles to enhance traffic management operations. To whom more is given, more is expected; the directorate is now better poised to deliver on its mandate.
“To this end, the directorate has switched from manual to computerised vehicle inspection scheme to ensure that vehicles plying our roads are truly road worthy. They are also removing and writing off all non-road worthy vehicles from the FCT roads.
“The Directorate has improved on its road recovery activities in case of accidents through strategic positioning of its heavy-duty recovery equipment for prompt response to emergencies.”
