LCC Keeps Workforce, Despite No Toll Collection Since 2020

Bennett Oghifo

The Lekki Concession Company (LCC) operator of the Lekki Toll Road in Lagos has said it has managed to keep its workforce despite leaving the toll gates open since last year.

The LCC model has helped to boost employment in the country post-pandemic, according to industry professionals who compared the company’s reaction to difficult times to those of some companies that resorted to layoffs and pay cut.

LCC’s Managing Director, Yomi Omomuwasan said, “We are well aware of the unemployment figures in Nigeria, but despite our current situation, we are not considering laying-off our staff.”

Omomuwasan added that “as an institution, we are sensitive to the needs of our staff members and the roles they play in servicing our customers, in this instance, road users. They have dependents too, so laying them off because of our current situation is a no-brainer for us.”

As the economy bounces back from the COVID-19 induced downturn and bearing in mind the International Monetary Fund’s forecast that the Gross Domestic Product will grow by 2.5 per cent in 2021, the expectation is that there would be more jobs to reduce the army of unemployed across the country sooner rather than later.

For instance, the Labour Force Report published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) earlier in March brought home the starkness of the nation’s unemployment crisis. The report indicated that the country’s unemployment rate rose to 33.3% in Q4, 2020 from the 27.11% recorded for Q2, 2020.

Essentially, it meant that about 23.2 million Nigerians were unemployed in those three months, with the figures most likely to increase whenever a new report is released.

Unarguably, the COVID-19 pandemic and the attendant economic downturn contributed to this as even global brands realigned their operations. They did this through staff layoffs, furlough, remote work, and wage reduction to augment capital reserves and seek new capital sources for business optimisation, stability and solvency.

Ford, for instance, designed a Powered Air-Purifier Respirator (PAPR), which provides filtered air for up to eight hours, allowing healthcare givers to work in a contaminated environment without fear of contracting the virus.

Beverage giant, the Coca-Cola Company, redeployed resources to producing face shields to meet the needs of frontline officers in North America. The same for Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) fashion line making one million face shields and long-sleeve protective aprons for Swedish, Spanish and Italian health workers.

General Motors (GM) partnered with Ventec to produce about 30,000 ventilators and 1.5 million face masks. The same was done by Fiat Chrysler, Honeywell, Nordstrom, Bacardi, and SC Johnson. LVMH, luxury good conglomerates consisting of Christian Dior and Givenchy, switched production lines from perfume and cosmetics to hand sanitizers.

However, Nigerian manufacturers, who could not switch production lines easily like their foreign counterparts, toed the line of rightsizing because the pandemic further aggravated challenges, including difficulty accessing foreign exchange, high cost of power, and high transportation costs. Some of the other issues that made them resort to pay cuts and outright layoff include low demand for the commodity, difficulty accessing funds and regulatory issues.

All these challenges have affected the attainment of the manufacturing sector’s full potential for job and wealth creation, hence the high unemployment figures. But challenging as the operating environment was during the pandemic, and now, some companies didn’t lay off their staff. While some resorted to pay cuts, others managed to keep their workers and employed more. One of the corporate organisations that have kept its workforce intact is the Lekki Concession Company (LCC). Despite the losses it suffered last year, the company has kept its over 1000 direct and indirect employees, thereby helping to reduce the nation’s unemployment figures.

LCC, the organisation that built and maintains the Eti-Osa Lekki-Epe Expressway, said it continues to render value-added services for the ease of road users. “It provides free 24/7 towing services, accident and breakdown recovery, emergency services and 24-hour security patrol along the express road. Despite the harsh economy and the fact that it has not collected toll on the road since October 2020, LCC has continued serving the public through its dynamic workforce.”

LCC could have well used the fact that it hasn’t been collecting toll on the road for months as an excuse, but as a responsible corporate entity, it continues to productively deploy its staff members who in turn take care of their dependents.

A 2019 Statista Research on Household Structure in Nigeria gave the average composition of a family as five. The number of people that would be distressed is unimaginable if the company had acted rashly and let go of its over 500 employees. What would have happened to their dependents?

As part of its CSR initiatives, LCC recently mobilized its road maintenance contractor who deployed equipment to clean drainages at Addo Road, Ajah, which is outside its concession area, to lessen the perennial flooding on that stretch of the road. Ajah residents and road users, unsurprisingly, were appreciative of the gesture, which made commuting easier.

Commendably, LCC has also been involved in affiliated interventions that resulted in job creation. In 2019, the company presented 50 General Certificate of Examination (GCE) and National Examination Council (NECO) forms to the indigenes of Eti-Osa Local Government, who hired teachers to prepare the students.

Though it has been tough meeting its loan repayment obligations- and commitment to workers- given the inability to collect tolls, it keeps soldiering on. Notwithstanding, LCC has been deploying its workforce for emergency response, incident management, free of charge and ensuring the safety and security of road users on the Lekki corridor.