Chinelo Obogo

Bike-hailing companies have reached an agreement with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), to pay a daily fee of N500 to avoid harassment.

Techcabal reports that riders affiliated with these startups will buy a ₦500 daily ticket that allows them to operate anywhere in the state without the fear of harassment. For months, the unions have harassed riders affiliated with ORide, MAX and Gokada, forcing them to pay levies to operate in many parts of Lagos.

After a series of meeting, the unions had originally proposed a ₦1000  daily ticket which was rejected by the startups. The new agreement was brokered by the Lagos State government, which stood by as the unions extorted, harassed and beat up bike-hailing riders.  As part of the new ticketing arrangement, the NURTW and RTEAN will each receive ₦200, while ₦100  will go to the local government where the ticket was sold.

The deal does not provide much relief for bike-hailing companies as the Lagos State government is still planning to go ahead with its proposed license for startups. “After settling with the unions we will come for our own,” a special adviser to the Lagos State governor allegedly told the startups, the source said.

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MAX, ORide and Gokada are three of the biggest bike-hailing companies around, with over 1,000 riders each. The new agreement means each of their riders will pay ₦182,500 ($501.93) to operate in Lagos for 365 days. This translates to ₦182.5 million ($501,935) for 1,000 bikers, a sum that is nearly eight times bigger than the ₦25 million ($68,758) licence the Lagos Government was proposing in July.

It’s unclear at this point if the bike-hailing companies will give riders these levies or the riders will pay out of pocket. Bikers affiliated with these companies are already quite familiar with daily levies from these unions. They pay between N500 and N1,000 or more to operate in certain neighbourhoods.