According to a recent research by the Danne Institute for Research, severe traffic is costing Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial center, an astounding N4 trillion every year.
The Bank of Industry and Africa Finance Corporation funded the study, “Behavioural Causes of Traffic Congestion in Lagos,” which emphasized the urgency of taking quick action to lessen the financial and social costs.
In Lagos, the report was delivered on Wednesday.
Franca Ovadje, Executive Director of the Danne Institute for Research, claims that the enormous loss would have prevented funding for essential industries like infrastructure development, healthcare, and education.
The chief culprits, according to the research, are behavioral variables such as inadequate road infrastructure, breaking traffic laws, agberos’ activities at bus stops, and buses picking up passengers
Ovadje underlined that the debilitating effects of traffic bottlenecks on daily life mean that Lagos’ 21 million inhabitants do not translate into commensurate output.
According to the research, productivity growth in emerging countries should increase by 5 to 6 percent for every doubling of the population.
Respondents listed road building, maintenance, and repair as their #1 challenge, and they also suggested banning agberos and strictly enforcing traffic laws as remedies.
The research urges government agencies to give priority to these suggestions in order to increase efficiency, draw in capital, and produce significant amounts of income internally through law enforcement.
According to the report, Lagos residents commute for an average of 2.21 hours per day, with 45 percent spending longer than that amount of time.
“Areas like Ajah, Etiosa, and Apapa bear the brunt, necessitating urgent measures such as nighttime road construction, creation of alternative routes during construction, and strict enforcement of traffic laws,” the report noted.
The research recommends ongoing measures to stop future traffic problems when the Lagos State Government wraps up construction on the Lekki Coastal Road.
To properly regulate traffic, it demands stiff penalties as well as a greater presence of LASTMA officials, police, and even military.
In order to turn Lagos’ roads back into order and make the city a living, affluent metropolis, the report’s conclusion calls for a broad campaign against touts and dishonest traffic wardens.
Taiwo Salaam, a former Permanent Secretary in the Lagos State Ministry of Transport, stated in 2022 that the heavily crowded metropolis of Lagos would lose up to $21 billion per month if traffic congestion in the area is left unchecked until 2030.