By Tola Adenubi | Lagos
FERRY operations at many waterways jetties in Lagos took a different dimension in recent days as many passengers were left stranded due to boat operators refusal to accept online transfers out of fear of been sent fake alerts by dubious waterways users.
When the Nigerian Tribune got to the Ikorodu jetty in Lagos, many passengers were seen standing and waiting to board boats to the Marina in Lagos due to refusal of the boat operators to accept online transfers.
Defending the boat operators’ stance, the Lagos Chairman of the Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transporters of Nigeria (ATBOWATON), Mr Saheed Lawal, explained that many boat operators have been victims of fake alerts in recent days since the issue of Naira scarcity became prominent.
According to Mr Lawal, “Many of our members have complained of been sent fake alerts only to discover after the passengers have disembarked from the boats. Who bears such losses? It is the boat operators that have been bearing the loss.
“So, to stop avoiding stories that touch, the boat operators are now insisting that passengers come to the jetties with their money. The fare is just between N300 to N1,000. Why should we subject such amounts to online transfers? Passengers should come to the jetties with their N1,000 or N300 depending on where they are going.
“Again, another reason why boat operators won’t take transfers is because our black market supplies won’t accept transfers from us when we go to them to buy fuel.
“We have been struggling to get petrol from filling stations due to scarcity of the product, thus many of us rely on black market supply to continue to operate on the waterways. If we continue to receive transfers from passengers, how are we going to buy petrol since our suppliers won’t accept transfers from us?
“If we accept transfers, we end up paying so much to get cash from POS operators before proceeding to buy fuel from our black market suppliers. So, you can see that the economics doesn’t tally. If we accept transfers, who bears the cost of charges that POS operators will demand from us since our fuel suppliers won’t accept transfers? It’s a sad situation that we currently find ourselves in, and we pray that the situation gets better in the coming days.”
However, speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, some of the stranded passengers lamented the scarcity of Naira, stating that the charges imposed on collection of money at POS points are outrageous.
“The boat operators are asking for cash. Where are we going to get that from? There is no cash in the country. Even the POS operators depend on filling stations to buy cash, thus transferring the cost at which they get cash to we their customers. If I want to collect ordinary N5,000, we now have to pay N500 instead of the usual N100. If its N10,000, we now pay a whole N1,000 as charges instead of the usual N200. Who bears such expenses?”
“When some of us got here (jetty), the boat operators said network is bad, that they cannot collect online transfers; but we don’t have cash and need to get to the Marina from Ikorodu by boat. They are telling us that they don’t use mobile phones that downloads mobile apps of commercial banks. That we need to wait for one of them that has an android phone that can access mobile apps.
“The situation at the jetties is crazy. We have money in our bank accounts but cannot board passenger boats because boat operators wont accepts transfers,” a cross section of the passengers lamented to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively.
