By Tosin Adesile and Stephen Adoga

 On the 23rd February 2021 early in the morning, Sparklight News correspondent was at Jibowu to take BRT to Ikorodu. At the bus shed, the ticketer,a female, refused to sell ticket to our correspondents and so many other Lagosians insisting that a card by name” Cowry” had to first be purchased at the rate of 500naira saying this would enable her load amount on the card for BRT access.

Many people including our correspondent argued that they are just hearing this for the first time maybe next time but the ticketer insisted. Some walked away while our correspondent was curious to get feedbacks of the people and decided to continue his journey to Ikorodu through the bus.

After paying for the cowry loaded with money, our correspondent entered into the bus and noticed flagrant disobedience for Covid-19 protocols by passengers in the bus and there wasn’t anyone to adequately control them.

Since COVID-19 doesn’t want cold, it is totally wrong for the Air conditioner to be on when the passengers were on board.

Also, there was no thermometer to test people’s temperature to ensure if they are fit to be on board or not. All Lagos State Government was interested in was to make money at all cost.

Inside the bus, our correspondent spoke to a woman called Ajoke Lasisi who said she had no choice than to buy the cowry card because she was in a hurry and she felt betrayed by the Governor of Sanwo-Olu because life has been harder since he(Babajide Sanwo-Olu) came the Governor.

She further said Brt paying has been going up, yet, innocent citizen are paying hard after earning low to survive in Lagos State. She said it was claimed that the cowry was free when it was introduced but she said maybe among them- those in political officers had access to it and were giving it to their family and friends.

Another passenger who preferred anonymity was asked why she didn’t cover her nose with a nose mask and she said even the driver wasn’t using a nose mask, how much more her.

In an Interview with another Lagosian who was at the bus station with name Olayinka said he turned back because he can’t allow himself to be cheated by the government. He noted that he hasn’t benefitted anything from the government since he was born till today.

He said “Cowry” was introduced to empower some people in the government disguising as if they were bringing in technology solution but invariably, the queue still persisted because of network issues sometimes with the POS machine.

Even though the government banned bikes and Marwa on major roads,yet,the bus transportation was yet to improve to eradicate the pains of being hooked in traffic without faster alternatives.

Lagos Bus Services Speaks

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Lagos Bus Services Limited (LBSL), Mr. Idowu Oguntona, said the company commenced deployment of the long-awaited contactless payment card called Cowry Card from Monday, 22nd March, 2021. 

Oguntona, who disclosed in a release, said in appreciating the trust and support of the masses for its operations, the company has initiated a promotion that will reward customers with 20,000 Free Cowry Cards across its approved stations and routes.

According to him, the Cowry Card recently introduced by the Lagos Metropolitan Transport Authority (LAMATA) is designed to ease the process of payment and making daily commuting pleasurable and stress-free, just with a tap of the card. 

“All you have to do is ‘Tap-In’ at the beginning of your journey and ‘Tap-Out’ when alighting from the bus. I will implore our teeming customers to visit our stations, register, get their cards and start using it immediately”, Oguntona explained. 

While noting that the new mode of payment is in tandem with what is in operational in other smart cities, the Managing Director declared that the move is to ensure safe, fast and secured transportation across the metropolis. 

Oguntona added that the use of cowry card becomes necessary considering the population density of Lagos State which requires an effective transportation system.

On the contrary, Managing Directors position, Lagos BRT commuters have said that except there is a review of the recently introduced mode of payment to allow commuters fund their fare cards by themselves, the Cowry innovation may not be in the interest of keeping Lagos moving in line with the state government’s resolve.

Speaking with Stephen Adoga of the Sparklight news, Mr. Adebanjo, a frequent BRT commuter at the Oshodi Terminal questioned the lack of provision for commuters to fund their cards by themselves through the online transfer system, saying that forcing commuters to queue to get their cards funded at the terminal before boarding is not different from what was obtainable when the manual ticketing system was still in place. He stated further that one would have expect that stories of queuing for long hours, as well as the scuffles usually experienced in the queues would be a thing of the past with the introduction of new technology. But that, according to him, hasn’t been the case as it is “same old story.”

Although Primero, the operators of BRT had on 17th March, through its official twitter handle, tweeted that it was scaling up efforts to ensure seamless card transactions on the new card payment system, it remains to be seen if provision will be made for card holders to top up their cards at their convenience, to allow them show up for boarding at the terminals without the need to struggle to fund the card at the terminals before setting off for the journeys to their various destinations.

Oyinoyi Blessing who is also a frequent commuter accused the BRT authority of abysmal management of the buses, saying that the lack of proper maintenance for the vehicles is the reason for the regular breakdown that some of the buses always experience on the road. Ayobami, on the other hand, berated the operators for their policy of minimum balance of N500 on the card. She pleaded the operators to consider minor traders, especially the women, who can only afford to fund the card for one trip at a time. As for Haruna who also is a regular commuter, having a balance on the card isn’t an issue, but getting debits without embarking on a trip makes him unhappy. He said that getting debits when one doesn’t go a trip with the bus amounts to scam.

While Tunde Jobi welcomes the migration to the Cowry card, he quizzed the silence of the operators over the fate of commuters balance on the Lagos Connect card which is no longer in use. “How do you refund or transfer the money to our new cowry cards?” he asked. Mr. Tunde stated that people must not be forced to have a minimum balance when they can conveniently pay for their trips on the go.

However, efforts made by this reporter to speak with the staff of Primero were rebuffed as they claimed to not have the authorization to speak to the media, while the customer care line displayed on the company’s twitter handle could not be reached at the time of writing this report.