Zulum to procure 600 cars, tricycles for job creation

The Borno State Government is to procure and distribute 600 cars and tricycles for 2,200 taxi and tricycle operators in the state.

The new vehicles are to be subsidised to aid job creation opportunities among the teeming unemployed youths.

Governor Babagana Zulum, had last year, distributed cars and tricycles to youths in the Southern Borno senatorial district of the state.

While announcing the new Toyota Corolla cars and tricycles for drivers and Keke NAPEP operators in Maiduguri, Zulum disclosed that 600 vehicles are to be distributed at 50 per cent subsidy.

“I have already directed the procurement of 500 tricycles and 100 Toyota cars for distribution at the rate of 50 per cent subsidy,” he said.

He said that about 2, 000 tricycle operators, who currently do not have their own tricycles, will benefit from the job creation project.

According to him, four operators will own a tricycle, while two taxi drivers will also be running the allocated Toyota taxi car in the metropolis and its environs.

Speaking on the ownership of vehicles, he said: “The 2,200 beneficiaries will each be required to repay only 50 per cent of the market prices of tricycles and cars,” explaining that the payments are to be made from the generated revenues of operators, while the state government will waive the remaining 50 per cent payments.

The governor, therefore, directed the State’s Ministry of Transport to liaise with various unions of tricycle operators and drivers.

He added that the unions should agree on the ‘suitable and acceptable modalities’ of distributing the procured vehicles to commercial operators.

He warned that only deserving members who do not have their tricycles should be considered for allocations.

Zulum recalled that; while the government had banned the importation of tricycles into Maiduguri to curtail crimes and traffic congestion, the procurement of new vehicles is based on the needs of people to commute.

While responding to the interventions, the Union leader of Tricycle Operators, Hurso Grema, thanked the governor for the introduced regulatory measures to protect their association from incursions.

He lamented that tricycles are being used to commit criminal activities in the Maiduguri metropolis.