Fola Tinubu, Managing Director, Primero Transport Service Limited, in an interview in Lagos on Friday has claimed that the company has transported over 350 million passengers in the last seven years of its operation.
He applauded commuters for their dedication, saying they had stood by the company over the past seven years of its operations.
Tinubu decried the increase in the cost of diesel which he said had drastically increased their cost of operations by more than N500million monthly.
“Last year, we were buying diesel at about N200 a litre. Now we are buying it at about N740 a litre and we use about a million litres a month. Our cost of operation has increased because the prices of diesel and other spare parts have gone up.
“The increase in fares that the Lagos State Government approved for us about two months ago was not enough to cover our cost of operations.”
The managing director mentioned that it was not just the price of diesel that had gone up but also all spares bought to put the buses in good shape.
“People always think about diesel when they talk about our cost of operations, but every time the naira loses its value, the prices of all the parts we use on the buses also go up.
“This year alone, the exchange rate of the dollar to the naira had gone up from N360 per dollar to over N700 per dollar,” Tunubu said.
He said that all their suppliers sourced their money from the black market which always reflected in the prices they charge.
Tinubu said that the continuous dramatic increase in the cost of operations affected the quick repair of their buses.
He said that in spite of the increase in the cost of operations, the management had worked hard to make the fares stable for their services to be affordable for commuters.
The Primero boss prevail on the Federal Government for an urgent intervention by subsidising public transportation in Nigeria as it is done all over the world.
He said such would enable the operators to provide effective operations so that commuters could continue to enjoy its services.
