Highwaynomics Will Transform Our Highways, Says Dr. Ogunnaike

Highwaynomics will transform our highways, says Ogunnaike

Dr. Olusegun Ogunnaike in a little over a decade involvement in transportation says all he sees is a sector yearning for massive investments. Africa’s biggest economy is practically a land massively untapped. With the new concept;Highwaynomics, developed by his organisation – GOPOD Strategy Ltd., Ogunnaike is determined to let the governments see the need to build economic value-chain around the roads, beginning with the highways. He spoke with Michael Peters. Excerpts

How will you assess Nigeria’s transportation industry? How do you think we can better optimize this sector or will you say the challenges are irredeemable?

We have been able to come up with a strategy at GOPOD Strategy Limited that we called GOPOD Transportation Consult, where we have been able to create an ecosystem that will drive a multi-modal transportation system and we have been able to create a system that would link, starting from the road – highways. That made us come up with the concept of Highwaynomics. Highwaynomics is the development of a sustainable ecosystem around our roads, by creating an economic area around them, particularly the Trunk A highways and seeing how they can be linked to the other modes like Train Stations, Airports and water terminals, generally building an economic system around the road.

This Highwanomics appears novel. How will GOPOD propose to make this work? Are there prospects that things would be better with Highwaynomics?

For us, this is doable with the right political will from the government. Because of the erroneous believe that transport infrastructure is a vehicle for public good, while they ought to serve purely economic good, i.e. helping us to unlock economic potentials say for instance of taking agricultural produce from the farms to the market centres across the country. The role of government is very critical in drawing out policy direction that will clearly underscore this as a core part of the whole economic value chain of any road infrastructure. You can never have a sustainable transport infrastructure if you don’t build an economic ecosystem around it, something that would drive the people to see it not as a means to an end, but an end in itself. Take for instance, the majority of our people are into agriculture and in order to develop our agricultural system, there is a need for us to deliberately plan the construction of feeder roads to these agricultural zones.

What do you like to propose to make the difference in order to transform the nation’s transportation system to meet global standards?

Specifically, to make the difference, we need to be deliberate and plan our transport infrastructure. We need to remodel the maintenance structure for our highways. Take a case study of managing public transportation in Lagos. There is a need for stakeholders to come together and work with current operators, NURTW, RTEAN and the rest of them; to structure a system that would be transparent to attract investment. Secondly, we need to set up an agency to focus on maintaining our road infrastructure. We can copy from South Africa. The South Africans have the South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL). FERMA or the likes of them needed to be replaced with an all-embracing roads company established for the purpose of maintaining all highways. The responsibility of maintaining and prioritizing road infrastructure expansion and construction should be that of the company and not the Federal Government. Above all, the company must be managed as a business and not as a public corporation to be bogged down by official red-tapism. The proposed company would develop among others, more motor parks along all our highways.

Will creating another agency to manage the roads not be seen as another burden for a national government that is already accused of being overweight?

Sincerely this organisation we are looking at may just have government backing in terms of policy but we are proposing that it should operate primarily like an SPV, that is a (Special Purpose Vehicle), and it has to involve operators and professionals to manage a system that would give government returns. This company must be allowed to operate largely independent of government but with government’s full policy backing for the management of our roads. An agency like FERMA can be upscaled into this but the board composition will now involve stakeholders that will also be part of this operation. It must be populated by technocrats and operators who have real stakes in the nation’s road space. This company will set up policy and automation and put all our roads under surveillance so that we would be able to account for every kilometer of the road. If you talk about tolling alone, if well managed, Nigerians are willing to pay if they drive on good roads. It is about the values that people get from the government. Nigerians buy the most expensive vehicles, buy fuel at expensive rates, so we cannot assume that paying a toll that would fix the roads is going to be the problem. If the roads are efficient and if they can add value to peoples’ productivity, people won’t mind the toll.

Talking about tolling, would tolling have helped in making our roads motorable?

Tolling would make a whole lot of difference in the state of our roads if well managed, because the concept of highwaynomics which we believed, developed and have been canvassing is taking the highways as economic areas that will give value to all stakeholders and the stakeholders must contribute value to. You cannot assume that the highway is an economic area and asset if it is not maintained. To avoid the sustainability issue, and resolve the question of its maintenance if there is no revenue being generated. For every asset that is deployed, it must generate a return on investment. These are many ways that you can make the tolling not burdensome. Right now, our highways are not contributing any other thing other than they being just a means of reaching our various destinations. We need to build an economic ecosystem around them to make them more viable and for which must continue to attract people to look forward to going back there. You don’t just build roads as a means to an end, but an end in itself because a lot of economic activities have been created around it to ensure its sustainability.

Will tolling assist in generating funding to manage our highways?

With regards to tolling models, you can have a model that relates to adding it up to fueling. You can have a model that is Pay As You Go (PAYG), and you can have a model that relates to rental. For those that are always on the road, it may not be advisable to have PAYG, you can have Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) stickers, rented for use for one year, in which without having to stop, the cameras mounted at the tolling arcade could pick your details from your car and the bars would open to let you pass. So, there are convenient ways of tolling that could be adopted and it is gratifying to note that the Federal Government has already commenced tolling somewhere in the Northern part of the country. Soon I believe, it would spread round the six geopolitical zones in the country.

“Basically, it is not enough to toll our roads if the revenue from the toll will not be strictly accounted for. But definitely, tolling would make a whole lot of difference in the state of our roads if well managed”.