The managing director said it was not just the price of diesel that went up but also the spares of the BRT buses.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Over 350 million passengers have boarded the BRT buses in the last seven years of its operation in Lagos.
Managing director, Primero Transport Service Limited, Fola Tinubu, disclosed this during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday.
He commended commuters for their steadfastness, saying they have been standing by the company over the past seven years of its operations.
Tinubu decried the increase in the cost of diesel which he said had drastically increased the cost of operations of BRT buses by more than N500million monthly.
“Last year, we were buying diesel at about N200 a litre. Now we are buying it at about N740 a litre and we use about a million litres a month.
“Our cost of operation has increased because the prices of diesel and other spare parts have gone up.
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“The increase in fares that the Lagos State Government approved for us about two months ago was not enough to cover our cost of operations.
“People always think about diesel when they talk about our cost of operations, but every time the naira loses its value, the prices of all the parts we use on the buses also go up.
“This year alone, the exchange rate of the dollar to the naira had gone up from N360 per dollar to over N700 per dollar,” Tunubu said.
He said that all their suppliers sourced their money from the black market which always reflects in the prices they charge.
The managing director said it was not just the price of diesel that went up but also the spares of the BRT buses.
Tunubu said the continuous dramatic increase in the cost of operations had affected the company in the quick repair of their buses in a timely manner.
He said that in spite of the increase in the cost of operations, the management had worked hard to make the fares stable for their services to be affordable for commuters.
The Primero boss called on the Federal Government for an urgent intervention by subsidising public transportation in Nigeria as it is done all over the world.
He said such would enable the operators to provide effective operations so that commuters could continue to enjoy its services.
