Charlez Blog

In what can be tagged a welcome development, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has pegged the minimum age of commercial drivers in Nigeria at 26, saying that underage commercial drivers are responsible for some road crashes in the country.
Speaking at the inauguration of commercial driver’s license in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, the state sector commander of FRSC, Christopher Ademoluti, said the measure would ensure that only matured commercial drivers had the opportunity to drive and convey others.
According to Ademoluti, “We want to peg the minimum age of a commercial driver in Nigeria at 26 to enable them have the experience, maturity and expertise to drive and convey people, unlike the present situation where we have underage people like 16-year-olds driving commercial vehicles,” he said.
He also added that the upgraded National Driver’s Licence (NDL) was capable of reducing road traffic crashes on Nigerian roads, saying that the NDL contained data of commercial drivers, serving as checks on them and making them to be more careful and responsible: “With the new driver’s licence, we want to have all the data of the commercial drivers in Nigeria. We don’t want to have a driver, who drives an 18-seater bus, to endanger the lives of the 18 people. It is only one commercial driver that dies where 18 people die”, he said.