Inline with its three-year Bus Reform Initiative, the Lagos State Government is to introduce over 5000 air-conditioned buses to replace the yellow commercial buses, popularly called Danfo.
Under the arrangement, the State Government isto launch public transportation infrastructure bond of N100 billion that would span between seven and 10 years.
Speaking at the weekend in Lagos, the State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambose said: “You are aware that the Federal Government paid the refund of the Paris Club Loan last December and this is a money belonging to the State Governments due to the refund and so Lagos State decided not to touch its share of the Paris Club refund. Right now, we have a sinking fund of N14.5 billion that is already put in place to drive this public transportation bond.
“We refused to touch our money and we believe that the second batch of the refund should be paid next month and eventually that will be N29billion that we will have. I will add another N1billion to it making it N30billion to kick start this initiative.
“By the time we have N30billion as sinking fund to drive the bus initiative against the bond of N100 billion that we want to put into the market, there will be that credibility and credence that the bond will drive itself and that is the whole idea.”
He said the proposed Bus Reform Initiative would kick start this year with a sinking fund of N30 billion.
“We decided that the best thing is to allow the yellow buses go and so the Bus Reform Initiative itself is a three-year plan of 2017 to 2019 in which it intends to bring in new buses of 5,000 units in the three-year plan.
