President Bola Tinubu has approved free rides for commuters on all train services and 50 per cent reduction in interstate transport fares for Nigerians traveling for the Yuletide from Thursday, December 21, 2023 to January 4, 2024.
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr. Dele Alake, made this known in a statement on Wednesday.
“In the spirit of Christmas and the end of year festivities, President Bola Tinubu, in another demonstration of his love for Nigerians, has approved that the Federal Government should intervene to bring down the cost of public transportation to allow our compatriots, who want to travel to visit their loved ones and hometowns to do so without stress and the extra burden imposed by the high cost of transport around this period.
“The President is well aware of the recent increase in cost of inter-state transportation and even for air travel.
“We know that globally, intra-country travels and movement of people, goods and services always peak around Christmas and end of the year because of socio-gravitational pull of the period which transporters always cash on to increase fares astronomically.
“In recognition of the economic situation of the country which he is working very hard to turn around, President Tinubu wants Nigerians to be able to travel within Nigeria to wherever they want to go to meet their loved ones without the extra burden of paying exorbitantly for inter-state public transportation.
“It is in this wise that the Federal Government is announcing, beginning from tomorrow, a special discounted holiday season fare on road transport and zero-fare by rail across Nigeria.
“What this means is that from tomorrow, Nigerians willing to travel can board public transport via minibuses, luxury buses at 50% discount of current cost and all our train services on the routes the trains currently serve at zero cost to and fro on their travels this holiday season.
“This special presidential intervention will commence tomorrow Thursday, December 21. It will end on January 4, 2024.
“The Federal Government through the Ministry of Transportation will be working with transporters, road transport unions, Nigerian Railway Corporation to seamlessly deliver on this special presidential initiative.”
“From tomorrow, Nigerians wishing to embark on inter-state travel to any part of the country from Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Ibadan, Akure, Maiduguri, Sokoto and other major inter-state transportation hubs will be able to do so at half the cost,” Alake also said.
