| AutoReg,
first of its kind in the world – Courteville
CEO
By Moses Akaigwe
Friday, May 02, 2008
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Akindele
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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So much has been said and written about the success of AutoReg,
a new process in vehicle registration and renewal which commenced
in Lagos State some 15 months ago. In fact, so glaring are
the gains of the new system that some beneficiaries have employed
words like “revolutionary”, and unprecedented”,
to describe the new trend.
The new vehicle registration process is being so rated against
the backdrop of the fact that hitherto the exercise was fraught
with problems, including loss of revenue, lack of reliable
data, incidence of faking, menace of touts and lack of easy
access to the service.
But in what practical way has AutoReg made impact on vehicle
registration in Lagos since January, 2007? This was the question
posed to Mr Bola Akindele, the chief executive officer of
Courteville Investments Limited (the firm powering the innovation),
when Daily Sun traced him to his office at Ikoyi.
“In the 15 months, we have been in operation, we have
established a record of 15 million registered vehicles in
Lagos, in addition to improving the revenue from vehicle registration
and renewal by 200 percent”, Akindele said as he disclosed
that licensing stations have increased from the pre-AutoReg
38, to the present 400 points in all parts of the mega city.
This is considered a welcome development by motorists who
consider the fact that the new automated vehicle licensing
and renewal was designed to improve on the cumbersome manual
method and licensing that existed in Lagos and still obtains
in other states of the country, except Anambra which keyed
into the “revolution” a few weeks ago, precisely
on March 1”.
The Courteville CEO said vehicle licensing under AutoReg takes
no more than five minutes, while renewal takes even fewer
minutes. Perhaps, the most interesting benefit accruable to
vehicle owners from the system is the fact that all vehicles
which data are in the system cannot be re-registered in Lagos.
What this means is that a vehicle snatched or stolen in Lagos
cannot be registered again in the state, if it already exists
on the platform.
“You cannot have a duplicate on the platform. Your car
cannot be stolen and registered again in Lagos…We work
with the Police to recover stolen vehicles. So far, more than
20 vehicles have been recovered through this cooperation”,
the Courtville boss told Daily Sun, even as he described the
AutoReg smart-card, the latest step in the innovation, as
a stripe card with chip and pin where “all data are
electronically stored”.
The AutoReg automation system was developed locally by the
team of experts at Courtville, and according to Akindele,
there is none like it in the whole world, hence the firm is
the proud patent owner for 20 years, at least locally, as
efforts are made to register it (the patent) in many countries
of the world.
“It is the first of its kind anywhere in the world”,
he said. “We are working in the direction of registering
it in Ghana, South Africa, England and other countries of
the world”. He also remarked with glee that AutoReg
is a feat which has provided a solution to a challenge facing
many countries of the world. “We have adopted a local
technology to address a global challenge”.
And this local achievement does not seem to be a fluke, to
all intents and purposes, or how else do you describe a system
that has defied the problem of erratic power supply (which
is many a corporate organization’s major headache) and
obviated challenge of system failure. “We have a guaranteed
99.9 percent up-time”.
Not surprisingly, the AutoReg’s success story has filtered
into the ears of many a decision maker in some states who
are currently wooing Courtville to extend the innovation to
their domains. The long list includes: Delta and Oyo that
will come on board by June, while others will follow later
in the year. Courtville is also working with ECOWAS authorities
towards covering the West African sub-region.
Speaking confidently, Akindele, an Agriculture and Banking
graduate and KPMG-trained auditor with a wealth of experience
in the banking sector (including Central Bank, Oceanic and
former Foundation Trust), said that if (and when) the system
spreeds across the country, and West Africa, vehicle theft
would be a thing of the past in the covered areas.
Interestingly, AutoReg is just one out of Courtville’s
rich product mix. Describing the outfit as a business solutions
shop with focus on e-commerce, including e-ticketing, the
CEO listed other competences as investment decisions, business
analysis and reengineering, research and develo0pment, process
review, business strategies, development of business plans,
and management contracting.
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