By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) and major bike-hailing services operating in Lagos State have reached an agreement on the collection of daily ticket to allow them operate in the metropolis without harassment.
Riders had always faced frequent harassment from members of the transport unions, who stop them to request for money. But to put an end to this, owners of the business have met with leaders of these trade associations.
According to TechCabal, the riders affiliated with these motorcycle startups will now have to buy a N500 daily ticket that allows them to operate anywhere in the state without aggravation of violence.
It had been reported that negotiations have been ongoing for some months between all the parties due to harassment faced by riders affiliated with ORide, MAX and Gokada, forcing them to pay levies to operate in many parts of Lagos.
Earlier negotiations show that the unions had proposed the payment of N1,000 per day by each rider of these biking services to operate in Lagos but this had fallen out on the part of bike-hailing services.
With this new arrangement that saw the Lagos State Government act as the intermediary, the payment of N500 will see the NURTW and RTEAN each collecting N200, while the remaining N100 will go to the local government areas where the ticket is sold.
All these are happening despite plans by the Lagos State to initiate a different license of N25 million for startups seeking to invest in the state.
A further breakdown by TechCabal showed that the new agreement met by all the parties indicates that each rider of every startup will pay an average of N182,500 to operate in Lagos for 365 days.
This translates to N182.5 million for 1,000 bikers, a sum that is nearly eight times bigger than the N25 million licencing fee that was proposed by the Lagos Government in July.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Modupe Gbadeyanka