Fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria has caused a surge in inter-state transport fares from Benin City to other notable cities in Nigeria, with the new fares on some routes increasing by as much as 60 percent when compared to what was charged before President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was sworn in on May 29th 2023, the Nigerian Observer can reveal.
According to the findings by the Nigerian Observer, most transport companies took the decision to hike their fares in order to remain in business, as a litre of petrol, which is an essential input in their business, rose from about N200 a litre before May 29 to as much as N520 after the new administration was inaugurated.
Research team from the Nigerian Observer visited a number of transport companies in Benin City in the last few days, to evaluate the impact of fuel subsidy removal on transport fares, and in the process, interacted with passengers and managers of those transport firms.
The study was done through visitations to different motor parks in Benin City. The places visited include Faith Motors, Big Joe Motors, Ameosa Motors, Peace Mass Transit, Osarodion Motors, God is Good Motors (GIGM), among others.
Oigbochie Godwin, General Manager of Faith Motors, said the subsidy removal has reduced the passenger traffic in his park.
He said: “The passenger traffic in our park has dropped by about 30% due to the increase in transportation fares. Our company is not the only one affected.”
We computed the increase in transport fares by routes and company wise. From our findings, Ameosa Motors topped the chart of the company wise analysis as its transport fare increased with an average of 46.4percent.
Peace Mass Transit Motors came second on the chart as its transport fare increased by an average of 45.8percent. Taking the third spot on the list, Faith Motors had an average of 31.9 percent increase in its transport fares.
Big Joe Motors holds the fourth position on the chart as its transport fares increased by an average of 25.9 percent. In addition, God is Good Motors (GIGM), has an average of 25.3 percent increase in its transport fare.
However, while the above findings give the average percentage increase on the fares charged by each company across all routes, further analysis of the route-by-route fare showed that the increase was not uniform across different companies visited.
For instance, Faith Motors has 12 routes which include from Benin City to Abuja, Onitsha, Aba, Abakaliki, Makurdi, Otukpo, Calabar, Uyo, Ikotokpene, Owerri, Umuahia, and Enugu.
Findings showed that the route from Benin City to Onitsha recorded the highest increase of 60 percent. Based on further interaction, it was gathered that the 60% increment was as a result of the fact that most customers prefer to use this transport company when going to Onitsha because of the quality of its service.
Big Joe Motors has three routes which are from Benin City to Auchi, Abuja and Ekpoma. Further analysis showed that Benin City to Auchi had the highest increase of 31.4 percent.
Peace Mass Transit travels three routes which include from Benin City to Abakaliki, Enugu and Nsukka. Benin City to Abakaliki recorded the highest increase of 60 percent.
Ameosa Motors has two routes. These routes include Benin City to Warri and Port Harcourt. In this analysis, Benin City to Warri has the highest increase of 50 percent.
God is Good Motors travels from Benin City to Lagos and has about a 25.3% increment in their transport fare.
Emeka, a bus rider working for Peace Mass Transit lamented that the number of persons travelling with his company has reduced drastically due to subsidy removal.
Another traveler who wanted to be addressed as Mama Ada, a cloth vendor, said she was supposed to travel to Onitsha but couldn’t because of the new price she was told at the motor park.
