TUC Buses To Attract N700m Adverts Annually

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) transportation investment buses rolled out recently will generate N700 million revenue annually through advertisements.

TUC Comrade Peter Esele President, announced this in Lagos at the inauguration of the 150 buses on the fleet of the investment outfit of the union in Lekki, Lagos.

He said that the revenue generated from the adverts would hasten the repayment of the loans.

The Tide reports that the bodies of some of the 150 buses were adorned with various adverts from leading manufacturing companies in Nigeria.

He said that buses were purchased to boost transportation business in the country, especially in Lagos.

“The buses were bought with a loan from Urban Development Bank, now, Infrastructural Bank, and guaranteed by the Federal Government during Late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration,” he said.

He said that the bank had approved N10 billion, which was guaranteed by the Federal Government, while NLC and TUC received N5 billion.

Esele said the Congress took N2.3 billion of the loan to buy the buses which arrived on February 7.

“The loan is expected to be paid within five years with five per cent interest rate.

“It is our first venture into business and we hope to succeed.

“We used our five per cent holding in Trust Fund as collateral for this business,” he said.

The TUC’s President said that the union was partnering with the Lagos State Government to ensure that licensed project managers run the business for the union.

He said that the buses would be operated by Country Wide logistics and Eko mega City and the fare would be handled by lagbus.

“We are running the buses on a private-public partnership. There is no TUC worker among the bus operators. If the TUC President is out of office, the business will continue to function effectively,” Esele said.

He said that the transport project would be managed by the Country-wide Logistics and the Eko Megacity to ensure transparency and prudence.

“The two operators have the licence to route the buses so as to ensure that the loan was repaid within the specific period,” Esele said.

He expressed the confidence that the transport project would improve the lives of Nigerians.

Esele said the TUC also planned to implement a housing project whereby Nigerians would not pay more than N9 million to own a house, while the loan could be offset within 15 years.

Our correspondent said that 100 of the buses are to operate within Lagos while the rest are to ply inter-state routes.