Vehicles on the road
By Eromosele Abiodun
Courteville Investment Plc, listed in commercial/services sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), has continued the introduction of its product, AutoReg, to West African countries. The company made a debut in Sierra Leone on July 1, 2011.
Executive Director Business Development of Courteville Investment, Mr. Wale Sonaike, disclosed in Lagos while reacting to questions on the status update of the AutoReg for the Motor Vehicle Administration Documentation.
He said there were efforts by the company to boost plans by President Goodluck Jonathan to liberalise trade and investment in the West African region.
He stated that the efforts would help governments in West African increase their revenue generation drive and ensure sustained economic development in the region.
The product, he added, had become a household name in Nigeria where it had been in operations in fourteen states, noting that the product had been accepted as a form of motor vehicle documentation and administration.
“It has also come to set a standard that any form of reference to motor vehicle documentation, verification, and administration is AutoReg, just like Coke is commonly used to describe all types of soft drinks.
“So we are happy we have contributed something positive to the way business is done in Nigeria and to the way Government does its business particularly in the area of public service excellence. We have been able to discharge our part comfortably and government is also happy because now more revenue is coming to them on Motor vehicle documentation and administration” Sonaike said.
According to him, under the AutoReg franchise, Courteville Investment provides services for vehicle licensing, Hackney permit, Road Worthiness Certification/Vehicle Test and a couple of others.
Sonaike noted that all the database it had built for Governments in the past four years are Online Real Time.
“Once they have access to the internet, at any point in time and from anywhere in the world, authorised officials of government can log on to the Courteville AutoReg Solution site and be able to verify how many vehicles have been registered. As we speak, we would be able to tell you how many vehicles are in Nigeria or in Lagos , stating the total number of different brands. This solution has been able to bring easiness to the way government does its business and the way vehicles are registered” he said.
The executive director added, “We are sure our West African business will do well because in all the states in Nigeria where Autoreg had been adopted for motor vehicle administration documentation, it has been success stories all the way, be it in terms of revenue, on line verification, database management, elimination of touting and counterfeiting, traffic management and tracking of stolen vehicles.”
Sonaike noted that one of the objects of AutoReg was to increase and collect fully, accruable revenue due to the respective state governments from vehicle licence administration.
“Immediately AutoReg came, it cut off a lot of counterfeits and duplications. Now everybody comes to the system where government captures your details and collects revenues attributed to it on vehicle registration and documentation,” he said.
He said part of the benefits Courteville Investment brought to all the states that have adopted AutoReg was the decentralisation of the processing centres of Vehicle Registration and licensing to bring the services closer to the people and for quick services at all times.