Group Exercise

National Tolling Policy, ICRC, Abuja FCT

State of play

ICRC was established by the government in 2008 to manage and regulate concessions relating to infrastructure in the country. The department started operations in 2010. In the past year it has embarked on awareness campaigns to raise its profile and visibility. The commission is funded by the Federal Government and enjoys considerable support from the World Bank and other multilateral and bilateral donors.

National Tolling Policy for Road and Bridges

The Federal Ministry of Works (FMOW) with support of the Nigerian Infrastructure Advisory Facility had drawn up a policy to guide the implementation of usage tolls on roads and bridges. The policy reflects inputs from some key stakeholders and the first draft of the Green Paper has been concluded. A second Green Paper is awaiting conclusion and additional inputs from wider stakeholders. The Policy also contains a number of commitments to improve the planning and procurement of infrastructure projects funded by public-private partnerships (PPPs). It will do this by developing effective communication with the public and private sector on the Government’s investment programme through PPPs.

Nigeria has not previously adopted a national tolling policy, although the aims of the 4th National Development Plan to introduce tolling are reflected in the Federal Highways Act, 1990, CAP 135.The policy objectives as reflected in legislation reveal that toll collection was to be limited to Government and that no road concessions and/or private tolling was envisaged. Nor is there any indication in legislation that the receipts of tolling would be ring-fenced and devoted to the maintenance of the tolled road or bridge. Rather it appears that tolls were to function as taxes and formed part of the Government’s general revenue. In short, legislation establishes no direct link between tolls for road users and receiving road services in return for those fees.

The solution

To improve its understanding and develop a good/acceptable policy, Government has chosen to engage in a series of consultations across the 6 geopolitical zones of the country. FMOW and the ICRC are embarking on a programme to attract additional investment by increasing the role of the private sector in the management and maintenance and upgrade of the Federal road network through Public Private Partnerships (PPP). The use of PPP would involve offsetting some of the costs of financing the private investment to road users, through tolls.There is no clear tolling policy that would guide the private sector and the users who will be required to pay the toll to ensure a successful PPP roads programme based on user charges. The policy would require social acceptance through a national stakeholder consultation process for smooth implementation.

In view of the Government’s emphasis to engage in PPP to develop Nigeria’s infrastructure, FERMA developed a tolling policy in 2009 for maintaining, operating and transferring contracts on certain federal roads. The main features of that policy are:

  • Only roads linking settlements can be tolled, subject to traffic volumes. This includes certain bridges;
  • Intra-city Federal roads will not be tolled;
  • Tolls should only be applied to recover costs related to significant investment in maintenance and rehabilitation and expanded highway capacity;
  • Minor improvements will not be tolled and Government will provide funding to supplement toll revenues where needed.

Some main messages and guidelines of the tolling policy below:

  • Road users must derive clear benefits from the tolled road, including time and cost savings, safety and reliability benefits;
  • Alternative free roads will not be required;
  • Frequency and locations of toll plazas will be determined on an individual road basis;
  • Toll levels and procedures will be determined by willingness and ability to pay, investment required, value added such as rest stops/filling stations;
  • Imposition of tolls will be preceded by public consultation;
  • Toll road operators will be required to comply with FERMA standards and safety;
  • Private data collection will be limited to information related to safety, administration and reliability of tolled roads;
  • Procedures will be put in place to determine disputes over toll charges;
  • Operators will have the right to collect unpaid tolls and recover interest and collection costs.

ICRC will lead on the communications of this policy working with the FMOW. Central to developing the capacity and delivery of ICRC/FMW will be identifying the different stakeholders, developing messages, extracting relevant issues in the policy, condensing the message, and identifying different platforms for communications.

The problem

The Government is in a hurry to launch the new tolling policy nationwide, to begin identification of PPP infrastructure projects, and work effectively with state governments and road users. Recent attempts to create a toll road between Victoria Island and Lekki in Lagos State, resulted in a stalemate when local residents refused to pay tolls on a daily basis.The tolls remain abandoned, while the government has invested heavily in upgrading the road infrastructure in the area. The Government wants to ensure that this scenario is not repeated at several locations nationwide.

FMOW/ICRC Communication Objectives

  1. Ensure that at least 60% of all road users and relevant government authorities know about the proposed National Tolling Policy and how it will affect them;
  2. Secure interest of investors in PPPs for toll roads and bridges.

Constraints

  • Limited government communication capacity, resources, skills;
  • Few people have access to Internet, TV;
  • Media “culture” requires payment for coverage of press releases, participation in call-in programs;
  • Multiple languages and linguistic constraints nationwide by road users;
  • Skeptical private investor community, often unwilling to engage on public private partnerships.

Group Tasks

  1. Choose the 5-6 most important stakeholders for reaching one of the two Communication Objectives;
  2. Indicate the 2-3 best communications techniques (media and non-media) to reach/engage each stakeholder group-- and why it is the best way to reach them that way;
  3. Create 1 message for each of the 5-6 most important stakeholder groups to reach the chosen objective.

Possible Stakeholders

Government

  • President’s Office;
  • Federal ministries, agencies (FMOW, FMOT, FERMA, FRSC, Min Fin, etc.);
  • Law enforcement;
  • State governments, agencies.

Lawmakers

  • State Assembly members;
  • National Assembly members;
  • Committees on trade, tax, transport,finance,other.

Current players

  • Road Users;
  • Commercial vehicle operators;
  • Commercial vehicle patrons;
  • Private Investors—Nigerian and International.

Organised Private Sector, BMOs

  • National Union of Road Transport Workers;
  • Commercial Transporters Union;
  • Other BMOs.

Other groups

  • Potential employees of national tolls;
  • Political Parties;
  • Trade Unions;
  • Railway users.

Citizens, general public

  • Residents living along the tolled roads;
  • Business operators along the tolled roads;
  • Inter-state traders.

Media – specify newspaper, radio, TV, social media

  • National;
  • State and local Government level;
  • International media organisations.

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