- PTONA seeks relief from FG
As the lockdown of three states and restrictions by many other state governments enter the second month, inter-state transporters, including long distance luxury and mini bus owners, are lamenting the heavy toll the measures are taking on their investments.
Some of the transporters who reacted to the situation last week said the unprecedented negative impact of the anti-coronavirus lockdown on transportaion, which is likely be extended further, may take them up to two years to recover from.
As part of the various measures to contain the escalating coronavirus cases, the Federal Government on March 29 imposed a 14-day lockdown of three states with the highest cases, namely Lagos, Abuja and Ogun State, which was later extended by another two weeks.
This was in addition to other restrictions, including a prohibition on inter-state movement, introduced by various state governments, which has entailed the grounding of an estimated 8,000 mini, midi and luxury buses and closure of hundreds of terminals and parks in different parts of the country.
Inter-state passenger transport, according to them, accounts for over 90 per cent of movement of passengers in the country, and therefore, very important to the economy of the country.
These points were articulated last week by the recently inaugurated Public Transport Owners of Nigeria Association (PTONA), in a letter to the Vice President and Chairman of the Presidential Economic Sustainability Committee on COVID-19 Pandemic, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo,
In the letter signed by the National President, Isaac Uhunmwagho and the Secretary, Frank Nneji, PTONA lamented that the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted severe economic hardship on their members’ businesses, owing to the fact that movement of passengers across the country is at a standstill.
In view of the challenges, the association appealed to the Federal Government to set up a N20 Billion COVID-19 Intervention Fund with the Bank of Industry (BOI) to assist inter-state passenger operators nationwide in funds to replenish their fleet on single digit loan of 5 percent with a moratorium of 6-8 months.
PTONA also pleaded with the Vice President to grant its members special concession on import duties payable on buses from 35 percent to 10 per cent; as well as direct the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to prevail on all commercial banks to restructure all term loans for businesses mostly affected by COVID-19 pandemic, especially the inter-state passenger transport.
The transport owners also informed the Vice President that one of the adverse effects of the lockdown is that members can no longer service the various credit facilities they obtained from commercial banks to procure the buses because of zero income they are experiencing as a result of the lockdown.
“And even where the lockdown is lifted in future, our operating capacity and income will equally be impacted negatively because of the need to comply with the guidelines issued by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on social distancing, which now implies spacing of passengers in our buses.“
One of the leading transporters and founder of E. Ekesons Bros Nigeria Ltd, Chief Eugene Ojukwu, lamented that all his vehicles are currently parked at the company’s stations, and not even one is on the road – a situation which he said he had never seen before in his decades in the business.
“What everybody should be doing now is continue to pray to God to take away this coronavirus and send it back to wherever it is coming from, because if things continue this way, it will be too bad for transportation in this country,” Ojukwu said in an interview.
Similarly, the Managing Director of a popular transport company with mass transit and cargo divisions told Daily Sun that the COVID-19 restrictions have completely crippled its operations all over the country.
The youthful helmsman who did not want his name mentioned, said “our operation is currently on lockdown as you are aware. So, we have not earned revenue for the past four weeks. But, we are still saddled with several fixed costs, employee remunerations and benefits,” he remarked.
The Managing Director explained why the company has continued to pay the staff their salaries even when the vehicles are not on the road and other activities still standing: “The employees made up of, drivers, technical teams, and casual staff, all have dependants. So, we support an extremely large ‘ecosystem’.”
He, however, hinted that if the lockdown is further extended, and al the vehicles remain idle, the issue of salary might be reviewed in order to reduce the burden on the company.
The long distance mass transit transport owners are in agreement that a kind of intervention by government, in form of financial palliatives, could help ensure a quick recovery from the pains of the long lockdown.
Heavy duty vehicles engaged in the haulage of petroleum products and general cargoes {including essentials like food items}, under the umbrella of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners {NARTO}, are also bearing the brunt of the lockdown, because a good number of the trucks are idle.
The NARTO Executive Secretary, Aloga Ogbogo, disclosed that the restriction of movement in many parts of the country has considerably reduced the level of fuel consumption, which means much fewer trips for the tankers.
“We are only taking advantage of the exemptions granted our trucks to render essential emergency services to the nation. For instance, if there were 100 tankers lifting fuel before, now the number has been reduced to about 20, due to low demand resulting from the restriction of movement and lockdown,” the Executive Secretary explained.
Ogbogo disclosed that the association successfully made a case for its members who converge at various petroleum depots to be provided with the necessary protective outfits.
