DEVELOPMENTS IN ENUGU STATE TRANSPORT SECTOR REVOLUTION EXPLAINED | Dr. OBI OZOR

Thank you very much. Thank you. It's good to have you.

The administration has been busy trying to make sure that we bring that vision of turning Enugu State into a hub to reality. And that hub is not just within the Southeast; it's actually turning it into a pan-aviation hub. A lot of progress has been made, but we still have a lot to do.

So what you're seeing on the ground is the phase one of the smart transport system program of the governor, which is the delivery of the initial infrastructure that allows that program to fully take effect. On the land transportation side, you see the development of about five phase one terminals. One of the terminals is the Holy Ghost Terminal 1, which caters to out-of-state vehicles, and Terminal 2 for intra-city vehicles. Then you have another terminal in Gariki, then Abakpa, and in Suka. The phase two of the transport infrastructure project is about to take off next month, which includes two additional new terminals: one in Nkanu and one towards the M&O axis. That completes the initial phases of the transport terminals. Part of it is the accompanying bus shelters with 50-meter laybys to allow for easy clearance of normal commuter vehicles, including the new 10- and 12-meter BRT buses.

Yes, the numbers will increase this week. So what you've seen delivered to Enugu, parked at Okpara Square, is the first 25. The next 25 will be coming this weekend, we hope, to Enugu. It will be delivered this weekend, and then the next 50 will be joining them in the first week of May, completing the initial first phase of 100 BRT buses. And those will be commissioned before the second-year anniversary.

You have to recall that the vision is to grow this economy from $4.4 billion to $30 billion. To achieve that, it requires a lot of serious transformation across different sectors. You don't grow sevenfold by joking around, and there is no way you can talk of development without figuring out transportation. Enugu needs to look world-class. People need to be able to move safely, reliably, and comfortably. What you see is that some of the assets that have permeated our urban area and even across the state are not the right assets for city transportation. If you go to any advanced part of this world, you are not going to see tricycles crisscrossing all through the city. You're going to see a proper BRT bus system, bus shelters, terminals, bus shelters that have the timing for arrival of buses. You're going to enter buses that have ACs, that have Wi-Fi, that you can have IoT devices that tell you who has entered the bus and where they stopped, so that if there's any insecurity, you can be proactive and manage those things. We can't comfortably tell people to come to Enugu, whether from within the Southeast or across this country or continent, without making sure we have those basic amenities. That is what you're seeing in the transportation agenda. However, we have also been working with the stakeholders. You have not seen any union in Enugu come out to demonstrate because we have conversations with them. We started this conversation since October 2023. This particular bus conversation we started over 14 months ago, and they all are part of it. Even in terms of the beneficiaries of the electric and hybrid taxi program, it is our citizens who are tricycle riders that are going to now go into those brand new vehicles. The drivers you're seeing for the CNG buses and conductors, it is our citizens who actually have very good, stable jobs. It is our citizens that will now have a 0% accident rate within the state because you are not going to have tricycles and other vehicles that normally just don't want to obey. So you're going to have a safer, cleaner, more reliable transportation system within the city.

Transportation is not new; in fact, it is a critical foundation for any developed city. So what you have in the first mile is: imagine somebody lands at Akanu Ibiam International Airport through Enugu Air. They need to go, let's say, to 9th Mile or to Udi town. Immediately they land at the airport, there needs to be a seamless connection of a BRT system that picks them up from the airport to the Holy Ghost Terminal 2. Once they drop at Holy Ghost Terminal 2, there is a second mile, which is both BRT buses going to 9th Mile bus terminal or the normal yellow buses that also operate that route. They drop the person at 9th Mile terminal. Let's say the person is going to their community. It is now the tricycle or the small yellow buses that take them to that third mile, to their home. So that you don't have small vehicles plying the Enugu-Onitsha expressway. You don't have tricycles or dilapidated buses plying that expressway because it's a major highway. So that is what the first mile is: from the airport to the Holy Ghost Terminal 2. From Holy Ghost Terminal 2, you have the second mile, which can be operated by both the BRT and adequate roadworthy tested vehicles, plying to 9th Mile terminal. And then from 9th Mile, that is the third mile or last mile, where the tricycles or any yellow buses that are approved to be on the road can now take the person to their market square in their community. With this, the Ministry of Transport and the central command and control knows where that passenger is from the time they landed at the airport. We know where they are, so if there is any insecurity, we can account for that person.

This will be very convenient. Imagine if you're going on bus 012 from the airport to the Holy Ghost terminal. When he gets there, he's only dropping off people who need to drop off, because somebody might want to go to Gariki. So he drops them off at the terminal, continues the journey, loads up additional people who are going to the final destination, and heads to where he needs to go. That's why when you look at those bus terminals, they are world-class. So if you are switching from bus 012 to 005 going to Udi, you just immediately see the boarding gate and you go on board. And remember, everything is cashless. The cashless system is the Cowry card, which is called the Eje. That is what you have, and once you tap, the money goes. Even when you're going on the second mile, all the vehicles that ply on the second mile are also being onboarded to go cashless.

On the question of affordability, the BRT is what makes transportation affordable because on each of those buses you have 75 passengers. You remember also that CNG saves you over 60% on fueling and over 40% on maintenance, and you're also carrying a lot of people. So it's actually the most efficient asset to operate for city transportation. So it is going to be similar, even probably cheaper, than how you enter a keke in Enugu, but you're entering a vehicle that is safer, that is the adequate vehicle that guarantees comfort and reliability. The other thing you were asking about was the adequacy of the number of vehicles. Imagine, for example, in the Holy Ghost terminal, the two terminals, we are going to be boarding 8,000 passengers per hour. So across all the terminals, we're planning to do about 60,000 passengers per hour in Enugu. Just imagine the reliability. These are what actually determine the sizes and the scales of those terminals. This is what determines the number of vehicles we are pushing in the phase one. So phase one of the BRT buses is 200, but they are going to all together be just about 400 BRT buses across the state. And those additional ones allow you to go to different local governments, not just the core urban areas.

When we did the transportation study, the traffic study we did in the state, which was done in August 2023, we saw that the bus stop design we have is not adequate. First of all, they don't have laybys, so there is actually no way a vehicle can clear off the roads. That's the first flaw. Then the second one is that those bus stops look like comfortable, self-contained units, so the normal passengers that the bus stops were built for could not use them again because some level of other potential users, some people that are homeless, took over the bus stops. When you see the current bus shelter design, you notice they are high, the seating is high and very tiny, so it doesn't allow you to actually relax there. It is done on purpose so you can't sleep on it. You just come there and you sit. That's also why you see that it's not fully covered. If you go to the UK or any place, that is the exact design of bus stops. It's not supposed to be comfortable; it's not a house.

Unless you'll be catching it while standing, which means that we need to give you an award for that. But apart from that, we have enforcement. My good staff will be making sure that those bus shelters are used for what they were designed for. It is not a place for people to sleep around.

Those vehicles are part of phase one of overall buses we are procuring in the state, including from foreign sources. The second phase will be produced in Enugu. In fact, in the next few months, you're going to see the groundbreaking from a massive foreign investor who is coming to assemble all the next pieces of buses in Enugu, but also to support sales across Nigeria and Central Africa as well. So we're bringing the manufacturer to Enugu, and that also guarantees the sustainability so that these buses don't just phase out after one administration.

Yes. So if you go to Coal City Shuttle, which is by New Market, there is ongoing massive construction of the maintenance facility for the CNG buses, done by the manufacturer.

The administration has not come to that. But because of the BRT buses and the infrastructure that the citizens of Enugu have invested in—it's your tax, taxpayers' money that we used to construct all these things—modern transportation must be allowed to thrive in the state, starting with the urban area. That means there might be situations where certain asset classes will not ply certain routes and roads across the urban area as part of the phase one.

Yes. Because of the e-governance strategy of the administration, there is an app called One Enugu App. So you can access all your transportation needs in the state through the One Enugu App. That's how you see the bus schedule. You can even book your ride-hailing when the electric taxis are live. You can book for buses. All those things are accessible through the One Enugu App. In terms of the routes and the planning, yes, those are ongoing. We are now codifying all the routes into the software for the terminal and the buses, because it needs to be able to show, let's say, '5 minutes, the bus is 5 minutes to Otiwa junction.' It needs to be properly integrated with the terminal, the bus, and the bus stops. So that's the technology that is currently ongoing.

Yes, of course. Part of the uncertainties and what we've heard from our citizens is the challenge of adequate road markings and signage. Because you can't really operate this type of efficient transportation without adequately marking the roads and having signage, even where buses can stop, where they can clear, different things. The government of the state is about to embark on an aggressive world-class marking and installation of road infrastructure signage.

I wish I knew the exact date, but definitely I believe that sometime in May, our citizens should be able to start taking a ride on both the terminals and the buses.

These things are all part of the dividend of all these developments: jobs. The most important thing we can do in this administration is to give our people jobs. That is what you're seeing with that, and also capacity building. For you to qualify to be a driver on this program, you have to have experience driving some kind of articulated vehicles. So you must have the commercial driver's license as part of it. You have at least a First School Leaving Certificate. You speak English as well. And then medical records are okay. So those are the primary requirements. And there is training. In fact, we've already started some level of training on some of the initial first phase of the drivers, and also the ticketers, and the people that'll be handling the onboarding and training on other ticketers.

Of course. In these different terminals, they require people that will be working in the terminals as ticketers, as cleaners, as security, as transport managers. Not just even in the buses. In the terminals, for the airline that we are launching, there are people who will be doing customer service, customer support, air hostesses, pilots. There are a lot of jobs. Even in the assembly plant for the buses and the taxis, it is going to be hiring a lot of people. So there is no excuse for any of our citizens to not get their hands on a job.

No, the state has not officially taken any taxi on board. So the picture or some fake news circulating was one of the prospective OEMs that brought their vehicle to be tested by the state. So the state has not signed any agreement with any OEM. So that picture we're seeing is more of a prototype. It's not a prototype; it's just a potential supplier that brought a type of vehicle to showcase to the state for the selection process. It's not a prototype. There are still other options.

At least the taxi program is going to be able to effectively help provide jobs to some of the keke people that might be displaced in the urban area. So that is how the numbers are determined. If you think in the state, let's say we have 24,000 tricycles in the state, you will be looking at, in the core urban area, do you have 6,000 to 10,000 of those tricycles? And that is exactly what determines the medium-term number of vehicles that will be produced in our state to go into full operation, not just within any taxi program but even in other states. Other states will also come to patronize those things. And from Enugu, you will start exporting not just vehicles but even technology companies that will be doing those ride-hailing services across different states.

These are very frontier issues. CNG and electric is a frontier. What you've seen the state do is to take the first step: can you actually show an investor that you're serious about energy transition? Which is to own assets that utilize natural gas and electric, which we've done. You've seen one of the investors, Greenville, they've come and set up their mother station for the Southeast in our state. What you're going to see is that more people will actually start coming to look into our natural gas in a very serious way.

As you already mentioned, one of the key things for our citizens is sustainability. There is always this thought that government is not the best at managing businesses. That is why the governor, in his wisdom coming from the private sector, decided that from day one we are going to make sure that this airline is sustainable, which is to partner with a proper operator, XEJet, who will operate this airline in the initial starting stages. With that, we evaluate and see the next line of action in terms of management of the airline. So far, the process is moving. But it's very important that we actually go back and understand why airline. Why airline? It's not just about having an airline because other people have it. When you look within the Southeast, you see Enugu is the international airport within the Southeast. You notice that Southeasterners are mostly business people, but none of the enabling transportation infrastructure for business people are actually housed here. You see that now. If you need to leave Enugu to do business, if you're a businessman, you need to catch a meeting by 8:00 AM in Lagos, you can't find a flight. You can't find a flight to leave Enugu and get to Lagos by 8:00 AM. If you need to come back to Enugu from Lagos or Abuja in the evening, you can't. This has been happening. With the strides and the wins that this administration is getting, how do you actually move those investors, our citizens, in and out of the state to go and do their business or bring investors in? See, now we are lucky that we'll be hosting the Nigerian Bar Association in August. Imagine a situation where you're expecting 15,000 visitors to this state. How on earth are you planning to bring them, and you have developed the international conference center? What are you going to do? It means that all those things cannot take effect if you don't have this type of thing. You have the surveyors association having their conference. How are you going to move them? There is no way the Southeast and these states can be able to access and go to their different businesses within Nigeria and outside of Nigeria without having a functional international airport and an airline. So that is why Enugu Air is here, to help our people get about their business.

Yes, there are incentives. The incentive is that they will have a safe, reliable, and comfortable flight. That is the incentive. But in terms of financial incentive, there won't be any, because if we do that, our airline will go down, the business will collapse. But what they can be rest assured of is that this airline will be well managed, it will be safe, it will be reliable, and it will be comfortable. But Rochester of Imo State offered 10% discount to Imo residents, and I don't know where that airline is today. I don't know where that airline is.

The initial phase one of the launch of Enugu Air, which I believe Enugu Air will be launched in May as well, is three aircraft. In fact, another one is coming in next week. You're going to see that. And the third one will be coming in just before the launch of the airline. Remember, launching an airline is a business. It's not just acquisition of aircraft. In fact, this has put Enugu State on the map. Any state cannot get up and start attempting to launch an airline. You must be prudent, astute, and a very smart administration to attempt that. It's not business as usual, because you're dealing on a global stage. The level of licensing required, the thing is not a joke. So what we are starting with is three, and before the end of this year we scale to over six. By the time we get there, we'll be able to cover more places, more routes within Nigeria, and potentially start also partnering with others to take our business men and women to different parts of West and Central Africa.

For phase one of this launch, it will be focused on local routes. The phase one is for the benefit of Enugu, the Southeast, and the entire Nigeria: how do you get our people to get about their business? They normally go to Lagos, they normally go to Abuja, they want to go to Port Harcourt, then some want to go to Kano. Can you make sure that you are able to get them reliable route planning for these core airports? Then gradually you start establishing new routes. You start doing from Enugu to Port Harcourt, which today we can't fly to normally, and other places. Then the third phase will be to go international. Can we take our people, sometime before the end of this year or early next year, to if they are going to do business in French-speaking Africa, Francophone Africa, or Anglophone Africa? Can you take them there?

No, no, no. The aircraft is not something that is easy to get by. If you want to buy a brand new aircraft today, you almost have to place the order two years ahead. It's not that easy. But the aircraft, the machines we have, are very solid, reliable machines that are within the regulatory timeline, and most of them are under 10 years old. They still can go for over 22 years before you even start talking of retooling them or retiring them. They are very solid aircraft, and they are Embraers. Embraer is a special machine for this type of our environment that is dusty and hot. That also saves on maintenance and improves reliability, because those are the reasons why you will see that at times flights are canceled, because they are always having maintenance issues. That's why, after due consultation, the Enugu Air team selected the Embraer machines as the machine for this. We're looking at the E170. So what is the capacity of the E170? Some people have also raised concerns about the size; they wanted a bigger aircraft, perhaps an Airbus or a Boeing 737. So why the E170?

Yes. Enugu Air has all the requisite regulatory requirements to operate.

The federal government has been supportive to the state, and the private investors are working tirelessly with the Federal Ministry of Aviation to conclude the concession of the international airport and the immediate rehabilitation and operationalization of that airport. We know that they have gone more than 70% of the way in terms of the process, and we're hoping that the remaining 30% should be completed hopefully in Q2 of 2025. That should allow them to move in and get that international airport completed, including the cargo terminal, the maintenance and overhaul, and other ancillary work like the extension of the runway, the extension of the hangar, and other work that needs to be done at the airport.

Working with the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria. That's part of the reason why I mentioned that Enugu people should be very proud of the leadership of this state in the person of Dr. Peter Mbah. Because what he has done is not something that is easy. You can't even get financial institutions to work with you on an aviation strategy if they don't believe that it will work. You can't. It has to be the pedigree of this governor that will make whether it's the regulators or any person to actually believe in a vision. We've been managing that thing well, and it is a commercial venture that has a lot of social aspects that will unlock the overall economy of the state.

Recall that Enugu has a color code. Green is part of our color, and lemon yellow is also part of our color. So that other color you see there in the logo is actually lemon yellow. It is part of our brand guide. When this administration started, the governor commissioned a proper brand guide for the state. So the Enugu Air brand guide took from the state brand guide. That's what you're seeing: consistency. This is what happens when you have proper business people piloting the affairs of the state. Green, of course, even as a mascot, that's the future. Green is the future. We will start qualifying for carbon credit as a state, and that should reduce tax burden because we can use all that money to do other important infrastructure in the state. So that is the official logo of Enugu: the lemon green that was seen on screen. That's lemon yellow. So basically, Enugu State has a color scheme now, and that's fantastic.

If you notice, if you mistakenly pass by ICC, you will see a signboard: Enugu Air office. I think it's visible now. At the different airports, we've taken possession. FAAN has given Enugu Air all the spaces both for offices and checking counters at all the critical seven airports that we have applied for. What you're going to see in the coming weeks is the actual setting up, and you start seeing the logos on those different checking counters and the offices at different airports.

I think the price will not be out of the current scope of what you pay today, whether it's in keke or the current yellow buses. It is within that same scope. For the airline, Enugu Air will also be charging similar to the average price that is applicable among the current operators within the country today. It's not going to be expensive or unnecessarily cheaper.

It's about sustainability. Have you thought about it in that way? One, you have to make sure that you are not just buying taxis; you are using it to do things that are long-term. Any vehicle, after 150,000 kilometers, will start struggling generally. But did you use all these taxis to set up assembly plants where Enugu State becomes like Detroit, Michigan, the motor city for West and Central Africa? That is the actual main attraction for us. Those numbers of taxis are a carrot to attract vehicle manufacturing plants within our state. Having those manufacturing plants allows for efficient and reliable maintenance of those assets. Thirdly, our governor says it's business unusual. So have you taken audits of the right people who are current keke riders and who are current taxi drivers to actually be the direct beneficiaries of those vehicles when they are given out? That is exactly what is happening. Any person that thinks he will be done politically is mistaken. It will be given to the keke and the taxi drivers, those who have a track record. When you check the people who are buying tickets on a daily basis, those transport e-tickets tell us the people who are actually keke riders and drivers. Any person, for example, that I know you have not been buying the daily toll tickets, I don't think you'll be qualifying to get any of those taxis.

In terms of maintenance, maintenance for an airline is not a question of choice; it's a regulation. The hours, even the pilots are logged, the crew members. So it's regulation. You have specific checks that must be done periodically based on the flight technology. Once that is hit, you must go for those checks, whether it's a C check that is longer and much more expensive, or the normal checks, or the minor technical maintenance that an aircraft undergoes before any flight. Enugu is the base, so you're going to see, in a week or so, the small maintenance hub which is going to be beside the local airport on the airside. You're going to see that now.

They are right in asking, because as part of the turning of Enugu into a hub, rail is a critical part of that, to be able to move agro-commodities from wherever their sources are all the way to the port for export and earning of foreign exchange. So they are right in asking that, especially for manufacturers and the heavy industry titans. This administration has a strategy for that. The governor, of course, we have a governor that doesn't go around touting all his thoughts and achievements, so he's been working diligently behind the scenes with regards to rail. Because we have a lot of wealth locked underneath our soil. We have coal. We are Coal City, 042. That is our oil. We need to be able to access those things, we need to exploit them to generate a lot of revenue to take Enugu to that next level, and rail is critical to it. That rail is also important to connect all the Southeastern cities, because everybody still has some level of affiliation to Enugu. So how do you make it easy for them, even in terms of commuting, not just cargo? The administration has been working with Nigerian Railway, with the Chinese companies that are going to invest and work with us in building those rail infrastructure. A feasibility study of the entire Enugu rail and the Southeast rail network has been completed by the state. The phase of the conversation is now on negotiation with these companies and investors on potential financing of that rail. That's where the conversation is currently.

To us, Nigerian Railway has started moving to a more sustainable strategy, which the federal government has done by moving rail from exclusive to concurrent list. What that allows is that a state can actually take their destiny in their own hands and have meaningful conversation with NRC. That is why you see Enugu continuously engage with NRC. At that Holy Ghost terminal, there's going to be a market station. That's why you see that expanse of land between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2; that is a market station, a rail station that will be positioned there. You also see that the federal government has gotten the rail line to Aba currently, and it should get to Enugu hopefully in the next 24 months or less. However, the line we are about to build is state-owned. It is a 135.5-kilometer standard gauge line, world-class, connecting Enugu to all the major cities. In addition to the national line that also connects others, you're going to see a proper connection to Anambra through... you're going to see connection to through Awka, and then connecting to Abia and Owerri through the line that passes through... in Nkanu West, going all the way through to Onitsha. So it allows anybody, even from Delta State, to move all their commodities through rail, passing through Anambra, 76 kilometers from Ugwuaba to Oka, passing through Enugu, going through... all the way to Port Harcourt and Onne. When goods need to come to this region, they no longer need to carry it over 600 kilometers from Lagos and the congested port. It can just come through Onne. Enugu is also building a massive world-class inland container port to be able to process agro-commodities not just for the Southeast but even for the Northeast as well.

I don't know what to say because I think that the question answers itself. If you buy small buses, people will complain that it's too small. If you buy a proper, adequate BRT-sized bus, they'll complain. But these buses are the right size for our roads. They are concerned about the inner roads that the buses will ply. The inner roads, they are adequate. The adequate size for these types of roads.

Sorry, you mean somebody, the driver for instance, has come back from his shift and the windscreen is cracked. What are the plans? Is there going to be a sanction? Is it going to be the responsibility of the state to repair it?

No. There is a company that will operate the buses. It's not the state. We've already signed with that company. That saves it because it makes sure that those buses will be on the road and properly maintained.

8-hour shifts. So that's three shifts.

They just have a small break from the hours of 2:00 AM to 4:00 AM for refueling. But of course, it's basically based on demand. So you don't need all the buses on the road at the same time. A certain block of hours in the day, because if you don't have the passengers, then the number of vehicles will be reduced. But any person in Enugu can go anywhere, because remember the taxis will be operating while for the 2-hour or 3-hour block when the vehicles are getting refueled and cleaned up. So anybody can move around, just like how you have in any modern society across the globe.

No. If you want to be on the road 24/7, we wish you well. You can do that. We'll be there to move you around.

The government is very focused on making sure that transportation is never going to be a problem to our people, our region, and this country. A lot of that work requires serious attention to detail and dedication. That is why you don't normally hear from us. It's not that we don't want to talk; it's that we're busy working for you to make sure that we are not telling you stories, but that you are beginning to experience all that democratic dividend: moving safely, reliably, in comfort, and affordably across the state and any part of the world.

Sure, definitely. Thank you.