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Business News of Sunday, 18 October 2020

Source: thisdaylive.com

Okada riders to benefit from N10bn coronavirus survival fund

File photo: Senator Gbemisola Saraki File photo: Senator Gbemisola Saraki

The Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemisola Saraki has said that her ministry will consider the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycles and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN) in the disbursement of the N10 billion survival fund approved by the federal government for transport workers and operators.

ACOMORAN is the umbrella body for motorcycles, popularly called Okada, operators in Nigeria.

Speaking with journalists in Abeokuta, Ogun State, ACOMORAN’s National President, Alhaji Shamsudeen Apelogun, said the union extracted the promise when its executive members paid a courtesy call on the ministry at the weekend.

Saraki, he said, informed the ACOMORAN national leadership that the fund, meant to cushion the sufferings encountered by road transport workers and operators as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, was domiciled with the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment.

According to him, the minister said her ministry was already working on the modalities for its disbursement.

While commending the move by the association to sanitize its operation through the (AcoRide) initiative, Senator Gbemisola Saraki further promised that her ministry would look critically towards creating an enabling environment for investors to site manufacturing plants in Nigeria, Apelogun claimed.

Apelogun, during the visit, had told the minister that ACOMORAN national executive committee was in her office to make a few suggestions which her ministry could use to transform and standardise the transportation sector in the country, in accordance with President Muhammadu Buhari’s vision.

He also disclosed that his association collaborated with the law enforcement agencies to ensure that all ACOMORAN members complied with the sit-at-home order of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and as such, prevented the community transmission of the disease.

“At this juncture, permit me to put it on record that during the lockdown, we ensured that our members complied with the sit-at-home directives of government despite the fact that we are populated by low income earners who survive on daily income,” he had told the minister.

Apelogun further solicited the assistance of the minister towards ensuring that solar powered motorcycles and tricycles which the ministry earlier promised that would berth in Nigeria were released on time.