The federal government has commenced the collection of toll on the newly reconstructed Keffi-Makurdi highway.
The rates as announced by the operator indicate that trucks shall pay a toll of N1,600 while commercial buses and light vehicles shall pay N500.
Regular cars and SUV/Jeeps shall pay a toll of N500 and N800, respectively.
Motorists who spoke to Nigerian Anchor expressed support for the collection of the toll, so long as the money shall be ploughed into maintenance of the road.
Even though road statistics are not really up to date, estimates indicate that Nigeria has a total network of about 36,000 kilometres of federal highways.
Most of the federal highways are in a very deplorable state. The current decision to toll some of the recently upgraded roads is to enable the government to derive revenue for maintenance and to extend repair work on other roads.
Experts suggest that private funding should be harnessed through various concessional arrangements for the construction of the roads.
