The Federal Government is reintroducing a toll collection system on some selected dual motorways across the country, but this time with a new open road policy.
An open road policy means that the collection of tolls on roads will be without the use of toll booths – an all-electronic tolling or cashless tolling system.
In the past, Nigeria had used the closed toll system in which drivers pay and collect a ticket at the toll gate before a barrier is lifted for the vehicle to exit.
Disclosing this after the Federal Executive Council on Wednesday, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola noted that this new system will not be operational until the affected roads become motorable.
He also noted that operational agreements would have to be negotiated with relevant government agencies.
Various tolls and exemptions
Speaking on the actual tolls for various vehicles, the minister said his ministry presented a memo which the council approved to reintroduce tollgates on dual carriageways of the 35,000km federal roads.
Fashola explained that the roads amounted to only 14.3 per cent of the entire 35,000km stretch of federal roads that were dual carriageways and would be eligible for tolling with vehicles paying between N200 and N500 toll per trip, depending on the vehicle type, while diplomats, military, para-military as well as tricycles and motorcycles would be exempted from the scheme.
According to him, the projected startup tolls available for financial modelling and investment decision making suggest that “cars will pay 200 naira, SUVs/Jeeps will pay 300, private buses are to pay 300, commercial buses will pay 150 while luxurious buses and trucks will pay 500 naira.”
The toll collected, as stated by the minister, would not only be used to maintain the roads but would also be used to construct new ones while the toll system would be electronically driven for transparency.
He emphasized that the system will not kick off immediately, and added the government consulted widely with public and private sector stakeholders before agreeing to reintroduce toll on federal carriageways.
The decision to reintroduce tolling comes almost two decades after the Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration dismantled all toll gates on federal highways across the country.