How Much Does It Actually Cost To Get A Drivers License In Nigeria?

How much does it actually cost to get a Driver’s license in Nigeria?

This is one question that you never get a single answer to.

Different answers are offered by different individuals. The amounts expressed are often between N18, 000 to N28, 000. Or sometimes, even more.

Yet, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) – the agency saddled with the responsibility of issuing driver’s license in Nigeria – maintains that it cost N6, 300 to obtain a fresh one.

To many Nigerians, the reality of a N6, 300 fee for a driver’s license only exist in the imagination of the FRSC.

In fairness, some Nigerians admitted that the FRSC account might actually be the case. These set of Nigerians agree that N6, 300 is the actual amount paid to procure a driver’s license.

However, according to them, taxes and other charges, like bank commissions, etc., often add up to increase the amount spent by applicants to be in the region of N10, 200.

Then there is the extremely complicated and tedious process of obtaining the driver’s license.

It is the very cumbersome process of obtaining the license that often inspire applicants to outsource the procurement process to intermediaries or touts. These intermediaries and touts are the ones who often drive up the entire cost of procuring the license to as much as N25, 000 to N28, 0000.

Over the years, and despite the outcries about how strenuous the driver’s license procurement process is, only lip service – by the issuing authorities –  has been paid to simplify the process or to make it less cumbersome.

For instance, what is the rationale for waiting for 90 days – 180 days before a driver’s license is issued to applicants?

Why does it have to take that long to obtain a tacky and basic card that does not have a microchip embedded on it like ATM cards and SIM Cards?

Also, why is it necessary for an applicant to sacrifice a whole day for “capturing”?

Or is it that there are individuals who are enormously benefiting from the tedious process of obtaining a driver’s license in Nigeria.

Are the bottlenecks experience during the process of obtaining a driver’s license in Nigeria deliberate?

Perhaps, these bottlenecks were deliberately instituted with the intention of frustrating applicants to the point where they would gladly pay extra to middlemen in order to procure licenses.  And of course, these middlemen are believed to be proxies of staff of the issuing authority.

Clearly, this is one sector where the government needs to focus its anti-corruption crusade on.

Tell us how much you paid for your drivers license in the comment section below.