Lagos State Launched New Plate Numbers For Vehicles

The Lagos State Government has rolled out new national vehicle number plates to motorists across the state.

This followed the approval of the modalities for the release by the State Executive Council. The Lagos State Motor Vehicle Administration Agency, MVAA is in charge of the distribution of the new number plates. Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa said the number plates would be issued to fresh applicants only within the next four weeks while renewal and replacement of old number plates would commence thereafter.

He said the staggered exercise is to enable the MVAA clear the huge backlog of applications arising from the non-availability of number plates nationwide, adding that driving an unregistered vehicle is a contravention of the law.

The commissioner said that number plates for motorcycles would not be issued for now and assured that the public would be duly informed of the commencement date. In line with the nationally agreed prices for the plates, owners of Standard Motor Vehicles would pay N15, 000 for a new plate number while it will cost existing owners N10,000 to replace old number plates with new ones.

According to Opeifa, in a statement, the state-owned Number Plates Production Agency, NPPA had produced sufficient stock of the new plates to satisfy the needs of fresh applicants in Lagos State and had put in place a production schedule to meet the needs of prospective renewal applicants to enable them meet the deadline of 31 August, 2012.

The issuance of the new number plates by the state government will be the first on a large-scale by any state government or Federal Government agency and will end the agony of new vehicle owners across the country who have been unable to register new and imported used vehicles since the NPPA ceased production of the old plates in September.

Opeifa explained that the process for registration of new/imported vehicles begins with the applicant accessing the website of Courteville Group (operators of the Autoreg platform) at www.courtevillegroup.com and downloading the Form MVA01. After printing out the form, a reference number is generated for the applicant, who will then proceed to the licensing office for the conclusion of the registration and issuance process. Alternatively, the Form MVA01 can be physically obtained from the licensing office, filled and submitted.

According to the commissioner, the MVAA has created special desks at all the licensing offices to deal with renewal applications which would commence in the next four weeks in order to boost processing capacity and ensure that fresh registrations are processed speedily.

Opeifa assured that the MVAA and its partners, including Courteville, bankers, revenue agencies and others were fully ready to deploy material and human resources to ensure a hitch-free issuance and renewal exercise.