Fighting Poverty With Tricycles

One way the Federal Government of Nigeria through the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) planned to fight poverty is to give out tricycles popularly called “Keke NAPEP” to transporters.
For this, NAPEP will spend about N2.25 billion for the importation of these tricycles before the end of this year.
But one thing that may likely scuttle the scheme is that the Senate Committee on Public Accounts has decried the continued importation of the tricycles, asking NAPEP to encourage local fabrication of its spare  parts  instead.
In a presentation made to the committee, the National Coordinator of NAPEP, Dr. Magnus Kpakol, said the 5,000 expected tricycles would further cement the gains already recorded under the previous programmes.
He said beneficiaries of the Keke NAPEP had been paying back in full, noting that the repaid loans were part of a revolving fund available to the programme.
He said each tricycle would cost N450,000 even as discussions were at advance stages to have the suppliers deliver the tricycles.
However, Senator Ahmed Lawan, who heads the committee, said the importation of Keke NAPEP was further worsening the poverty situation in the country.
He noted that instead of eradicating poverty, the programme was creating jobs for India, from where they imported the Keke NAPEP tricycles.
According to Lawan, the fact that the machines can be built in Nigeria puts a burden on NAPEP to work hard to empower skillful Nigerians to manufacture it.
He said: “Importing  the tricycles is creating jobs for other people in India and closing the doors for Nigerians.
“This is not the way to eradicate poverty. It is a contradiction. I believe that there are many Nigerians who can do this thing here in Nigeria and forget about importing the machines.
Kpakol further stressed that it was difficult to find those who could really manufacture the tricycles in Nigeria.
In support of the Keke NAPEP initiative, Spring Bank Plc early march presented 100 tricycles and 100 buses to the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Lagos State Council.
The vehicles, which were funded by the bank to the tune of over N300 million are expected to be distributed to members of the union with agreed terms of repayment.
Beneficiaries of the Keke NAPEP who spoke to National Mirror affirmed that the tricycles are helping them to sustain their livelihood.
Mr. Adekola Akin who plies Abule-Egba-Ekoro said he makes up to N1,000 everyday after making his daily savings.
John Akin said if not for the tricycles given to him by the Spring Bank his  family would have been in danger. He said: “I thank God for Spring Bank. If not for their initiatives, I don't know where my family will be now.
Similarly, Chineye Madu hailed the kind gesture of Spring Bank to see that transporters benefit from the bank's empowerment policies.
It would be recalled that the idea of tricycles as means of transport started as far back as 1986 when the Federal Government initiated the low-cost vehicles (LCV) project to alleviate the problems of transportation in the urban and rural areas. Then government  proposed to manufacture LCVs locally, starting with a motorized tricycle, as a basic vehicle for rural transportation.
During the project development, the concept was modified to an LCV that would satisfy the requirements of affordability, local design and engineering and local components whose manufacturing process would rely on existing stock of capital goods within the system.