Drivers on e-hailing platforms in Nigeria’s Lagos State are embarking on a week-strike that started this Monday to protest against some aspects of the new regulations by the state.
The president of the National Union of Professional App-Based Workers, Ayoade Ibrahim told guardian.ng this Monday morning that the representative of the union was not a party to the agreement reached between operators such as Uber and Bolt, Lagos State and the Professional E-hailing Drivers and Private Owners Association.
“App companies like Uber and Bolt push their responsibility to us,” Ayoade said. “We want to negotiate with Lagos State Government about the regulations and our responsibility.”
Lagos government had announced on August 14 that the new regulations which were to become operational on August 20 have been modified after an initial protest by the drivers. For the drivers, one contentious regulation was the service tax to be charged on each trip while the e-hailing operators like Uber and Bolt were to pay up to N25 million license fee and N10 million annually for renewal of the license.
The commissioner for transport Frederic Oladeinde said the government would instead charge N20 per trip instead of 20 percent of the charges for each trip. There was also a 20 percent reduction in the license and renewal fees. The drivers were also given up to 90 days to complete the necessary paperwork.
