Starting on the first of March, all ride-hailing services such as Uber, Taxify and the likes within Lagos are now mandated to pay the equivalent of 10 million Naira as an initial license fee or 25 million Naira for those with over 1000 drivers to the state government to be able to render services within the state. The fee is subject to renewal on a yearly basis.
Considering how Uber already takes between 20-30% on each trip it is assumed that the drivers or riders will bear the brunt of the new additional fee.
In addition, drivers will be expected to own LASDRI cards, Hackney permits and driving badges to operate within the state which will be issued by the public transport and commuter services dept of the Ministry of Transport.
The extra fee is a bit controversial as it is not clear if, despite these fees, the ride-hailing services will still be expected to pay taxes or not. There are indications that the ride-hailing services are in talks with the state government for a more favourable condition.
Seeing as this comes barely a month after the Keke/Okada ban, many have expressed concern that the recent policies are making life difficult for its citizens especially when there are no other reasonable options to cater to the populace.