Park and Pay scheme hits Abuja streets 7 years after ‘stoppage’

By Stanley Onyekwere

As part of its reinvigorated traffic management system, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has concluded plans to bring back the controversial park and pay scheme otherwise called  on-street parking policy, to streets in the nation’s capital city.

Making this disclosure during a media briefing, the Acting Secretary FCT Transportation Secretariat, Usman Yahaya said reintroducing the on-street parking policy was to bring about sanity in the city.

Recall that the park and pay system became a controversial issue about seven years years ago, before a court judgment stopped the FCT Administration from further collecting fees from residents for on and off the street parking zones within the metropolis.

However, while announcing the return of the scheme, Yahaya explained that the on-street parking policy, which will be managed by four companies as its operators will commence in May, 2021.

He said, “on-street parking management was suspended in 2014 as a result of an FCT High Court ruling that declared the operation illegal because it was not specifically mentioned in the 2005 FCT Road Transport Regulation.

“The scheme was riddled with so much complexities, the operators were accused of many ill acts, but we have resolved the issues, so in May this year the scheme will kick off.

“In the past seven years, the FCT Administration had embarked on various measures aimed at addressing the concerns raised by the Court and the public with regards to the scheme.

“The FCT Administration in collaboration with its legal team produced FCT Parking Regulations 2019 to amend the parking section of 2005 FCT Road Transport Regulations”.

He added that the four operators will cover the whole Federal Capital City (FCC), which will be divided into districts for proper exercise.