In the last four months since the Federal Government, through the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC announced the suspension of issuance of the old number plate to motorists, thousands of Lagosians who just purchased new vehicles have had a harrowing experience getting the new number plates.
They drove their vehicles on the streets of Lagos without number plates, at the risk of being apprehended by security officials.The FRSC had announced that all number plates being used now should be replaced with new ones before the August 2012 expiry date. But the commission, having stopped the issuance of the old number plates did not have the new ones in stock, thus posing serious security challenges.
Many motorists have combed the nooks and crannies of Lagos and FRSC offices looking for the new number plate, but to no avail. Many vehicle owners have had to park their vehicles in garages and the front of their homes, fearful of arrest by law enforcement agents for driving around in unregistered vehicles.
A few daring ones had dared to drive their newly-acquired vehicles on the roads without number plates or other forms of vehicle identification, including vehicle licenses, with grave implications for security and public safety.
Lagos Sector Commander, FRSC, Jonas Agwu had warned motorists against driving without a number plate, saying such vehicles would be apprehended, arrested and prosecuted or fined according to the law of the land, because it posed security threats.
For Tosin Adeyemi, a lawyer, it could not have been more frustrating trying to get the new plate number. Several efforts he made to acquire the new license even at a high cost have not yielded any result.
According to him, only a few licenses were available at a particular period each time he visited the Ojodu Lagos office of the FRSC. He argued that the issuance of vehicle license would have been easier if states that already have licensing offices spread all over were allowed to handle it, but the FRSC hijacked the process because of its desperation to shore up its revenue to the detriment of Nigerians.
As for Saidi Olaogun who runs a barbing salon. He has been denied the fun of cruising around in his newly acquired Toyota Camry because of the scarcity of the new number plates, which has made it impossible for him to drive his car. The car, which he bought since September, remains parked in his compound.
Olaogun said that he had to park the vehicle at home to avoid harassment and extortion by officials of FRSC, police and other law enforcement agencies if he had to drive it without a number plate or a valid driving license.
To tackle the challenges posed by the new number plate, the Lagos State government, through the Motor Vehicle Administration Agency, MVAA rolled out a large quantity of the number plates on 16 November, 2011 to end the scarcity of the commodity in the state.
With the new number plates rolled out in Lagos, new and newly imported cars and other vehicles are wearing new looks on Lagos roads. With the new uniform number plates gleaming beneath their bonnets and at the rear, the vehicles and their owners now wear a smile.
Prior to the take-off, the MVAA had put in place a seamless, user-friendly number plates issuance mechanism for a smooth take-off. The number plates are being issued in Lagos State according to rates approved by the Joint Tax Board. Owners of new vehicles will have to pay N15,000 to get the new number plate while owners of old vehicles will pay N10, 000 to replace the old one.
Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa had said that the number plates would be issued to fresh applicants only within the next four weeks while renewal and replacement of old number plates would commence thereafter.
The situation has been particularly acute and severe in Lagos, Nigeria’s sole mega city and her commercial hub. In recent times, thousands of unregistered new and imported used but unregistered vehicles are visible on Lagos roads with serious security and safety implications for the citizenry.
He said the staggered exercise was to enable the MVAA clear the huge backlog of applications arising from the non-availability of number plates nationwide, adding that driving an unregistered vehicle is a contravention of the law.
According to Opeifa, the state-owned Number Plates Production Agency, NPPA had produced sufficient stock of the new plates to satisfy the needs of fresh applicants in Lagos State and had put in place a production schedule to meet the needs of prospective renewal applicants to enable them meet the deadline of 31 August, 2012.
The issuance of the new number plates by the state government will be the first on a large-scale by any state government or Federal Government agency since the NPPA ceased production of the old plates in September.
Opeifa explained that the process for registration of new/imported vehicles begins with the applicant accessing the website of Courteville Group (operators of the Autoreg platform) at www.courtevillegroup.com and downloading the Form MVA01.
After printing out the form, a reference number is generated for the applicant, who will then proceed to the licensing office for the conclusion of the registration and issuance process. Alternatively, the Form MVA01 can be physically obtained from the licensing office, filled and submitted.
According to the commissioner, the MVAA has created special desks at all the licensing offices to deal with renewal applications which would commence in the next four weeks in order to boost processing capacity and ensure that fresh registrations are processed speedily.
Over the years, the MVAA has continued to work assiduously and creatively to achieve global standards in vehicle and driver safety and security. The hallmark of its success has been the rapid automation of its systems and processes which has resulted in more efficient public-interface, greater public confidence in the integrity of the vehicle registration process and issued licences/documents, increased level of compliance with extant laws and regulations due to improved turn-around time in service delivery as well as the generation and storage of data which have become invaluable for security and planning purposes.
The MVAA inherited a system of manual registration and capturing of data on vehicles and drivers which posed serious challenges to the Agency’s founding objectives as well as the realization of the State Government’s vision of achieving rapid transformation of the transportation sector.
The dawn of automation of vehicle administration in Lagos State came with the formation of a ground-breaking partnership between MVAA and Courteville Investments Limited – in consonance with the State Government’s policy thrust which emphasizes public/private sector partnership as a veritable platform for economic growth and development.
The partnership resulted in the creation of AUTO-REG, Nigeria’s first fully-automated, IT-driven vehicle registration and documentation platform. With this innovation, the MVAA quickly eliminated the deleterious socio-economic effects of manual vehicle registration.
It is its partnership with Courteville Investments Limited that resulted in the rolling out of the new number plate, now in circulation across the state.
-PM News
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