The Case For and Against Tolling

I have been thinking about road tolling a lot in recent days! I live in the Lekki corridor where the Lagos State Government (LASG) and its concessionaire-Lekki Concession Company (LCC), have announced that tolling will commence at the Admiralty Circle Toll Plaza on December 18. I am naturally not looking forward to that date!!! Tolling is not new in Nigeria-we had toll gates on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and other highways across the country years ago, until ex-President Obasanjo ordered their demolition! But those were inter-city highways through which commuters did not pass daily. Come to think of it, if toll plazas were re-erected on the Lagos-Ibadan or Lagos-Abeokuta expressways today, many Nigerians who live in Mowe, Ofada, Sango-Ota and other communities, and work in Lagos will pass daily through those toll gates. We have toll plazas on the international-domestic airport link road, but there are alternatives so no one is compelled to use the tolled road. I also recall some short link road somewhere around Oba Akran/Agege Expressway where tolls were collected by a local government in the 1990s, but again there were alternatives. The prospect of imminent tolling on the fast-expanding Lekki-Epe expressway corridor, in which numerous residential communities abound has raised passions in the area amongst residents and indigenous communities, such that the Lagos State Government had to suspend its earlier scheduled commencement almost exactly a year ago, in order for enhanced stakeholder communication and the completion of alternative routes. In spite of the one year delay (at a cost of N1.05billion in 2010 and N4billion in 2011 to the state treasury) some stakeholders remain unconvinced about tolling or fencing on the road. Emotions are perhaps understandably high, with opponents arguing that provision of roads and other infrastructure is government’s constitutional obligation; placing critical infrastructure in the hand of the private sector exposes citizens to the vagaries of the market place; tolling in Lekki is discriminatory since residents in wealthier neighbourhoods in Ikoyi and Victoria-Island do not pay road tolls. Others believe that proposed tolls are unduly high; tolling and fencing are a breach of citizens’ freedom of movement etc. More substantively is the need for an alternative road; tolling when only 6 kilometres of the road had been completed; and insufficient transparency around the contract with LCC. I do not support some of these arguments. Public private partnerships (PPPs-agreements between the public and private sectors with the purpose of delivering projects or services traditionally provided by the public sector) are a necessity in the face of financing constraints as governments all over the world seek to provide infrastructure to their citizens. PPPs foster faster delivery of much-needed road infrastructure; more cost-efficient design, construction and operation of road schemes; involve risk-sharing and transfer between the public and private sectors, along with leveraging private finance, enterprise, innovation and efficiency; and bring higher service quality and standards into public sector projects and services. According to a document, “Toll Collection Technology and Best Practices”, (Persad, Walton & Hussain) of the Center for Transportation Research, University of Texas at Austin, “road pricing is becoming a more appealing means of funding transportation since revenues from federal and state gas taxes have not kept up with growth in demand for infrastructure. Moreover toll financing allows projects to be built sooner instead of waiting for tax revenues to accumulate”. Tolling may also be a demand management strategy, encouraging car pooling and use of public transportation. The authors also note that “roadway tolling is expected to become more pervasive over time.” With the size, length and rate of expansion of the Lekki corridor, waiting for government to find the resources to expand and modernise the road may have been an interminable wait, and arguably more discriminatory! We have seen how in the telecommunications sector for instance, private capital sped up the delivery of infrastructure and services perhaps by decades over the rate of government provision! It is easy to forget how long we used to spend on the road before it was widened and improved-my travel time to my Broad Street office for instance (plus fuel consumption, vehicle wear-and-tear, stress etc) has been cut from one hour or more, to less than 30 minutes on average. The road is safer at night (one colleague was once shot by armed robbers right at the Lekki Phase 1 estate roundabout! The most tangible complaints based on my review of international best practices on tolling were the absence of an alternative road and perhaps insufficient transparency and communication with stakeholders. I believe these may have been due to initial learning curves. Fortunately the state government has developed a full infrastructure for PPPs-a law, an office and a procurement process and strategy that will mitigate such complaints. The development of infrastructure in Lagos is dependent on PPPs-power, rail, BRT, ferry services, Lekki Free Trade Zone, airport, seaport etc. LASG and LCC have now provided routes by-passing the toll plaza such that when you do not wish to pay the toll, you may veer off and return after the toll plaza. I would encourage LASG and LCC to engage in intense stakeholder and community engagement to address citizen concerns. However given the critical role of PPPs in infrastructural development in Lagos, I do not believe it is wise to allow this concession to fail.