AUTOMATED TRICYCLE REGISTRATION SYSTEM

AUTOMATED TRICYCLE REGISTRATION SYSTEM (A CASE STUDY OF LICENSE OFFICE, UYO)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0     Introduction

Tricycle registration has received a major attention in state programs in Akwa Ibom State in recent years. Records have been manual which in turn has not help to raise the efficiency of general automotive services in this recent years. Today, computer has been discovered as a very efficient instrument, which has played a very significant role in adequate management of information. Besides, it has played more roles in our country. However, computerization has helped in many areas of life and due to tricycle owners, the thought of computerization of this operation becomes of great important in order to wipe out the manual data processing system from which many problem have originated. The problems, which have engulfed the objectives of tricycle registration, are extensively discussed in this project together with the new method that was innovated. This work is conducted towards the computerization of the various problems in processing data in order to identify the various problems that have been encountered in the registration of tricycle manually. This theory also compares the existing system with the new system, which is exact, and a faster way of processing data and the problem faced by customers when they are registering their tricycle. Computer plays a vital role in the development of any company, it also saves some of its complex problem that has been faced by man and processes voluminous data within a short period of time or at an incredible speed. Recent emphasis on information and data processing in most of our business has grown adversely as in the case of tricycle license and plate number registration. In as much as tricycle registration has been in existent for ages now, the old system of registration has been in adoption which did not play a significant role on highway safety until the development of the new system of tricycle registration where a reflective sheeting which is more visible to read even in the dark.

1.1     Theoretical Background

The history of tricycle known as keke as a means of commercial transportation in Nigeria is directly traced to the government of Mohammed Buba Marwa, who was the military Governor of Lagos State from 1996 to 1999. He first launched the use of tricycle as a means of commercial transportation in Lagos. This led to the name keke Marwa, which commercial tricycle is still referred to in Lagos till date. Equally, the word keke is directly derived from Yoruba, the dominant indigenous language in Lagos. However, the popularity of keke across the nation can be attributed to National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP), which was inaugurated under the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo to alleviate poverty and provide economic empowerment to the people. Thus, the name keke NAPEP gained popularity across Nigeria. NAPEP in 2001 launched and distributed two thousand units of green colour tricycles with the inscription Keke NAPEP as a commercial means of transportation in the Federal Capital Territory FCT Abuja. This was to serve as a strategy to convert area boys from idlers to a productive work force. Tricycle licensing office, Uyo only focuses on tricycle registration and inspection, and not on other supporting services such as tricycle tracking, learner’s driving permission, and drivers’ license management, monitoring of drivers and tricycle operations and documentation of crime report. Tricycle registration in the city, state, and district offices burdened applicants by requiring them to personally deliver the certified copy of resident’s registration and other documents. Tricycle registration used to involve manual recording of tricycle’s information. This process has been extremely inefficient and the recovery of the information was not possible once ledgers were damaged or lost as it frequently occurs.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

These are the problems that are being encountered in the manual method of assigning a plate number to newly acquired tricycle in the department of licensing office, Uyo. The limited factors listed below have slowed realization of the good intention:

(i) Participation of Unauthorized Officers: Unauthorized offices according to my observation are involved in this work especially in the registration of illegal vehicles which can encourage fraud.

(ii) Wrong Charging of Fees: The officer in-charge is bound to charge a wrong bill to tricycle owners, which may be as a result of underassessment or over assessment of tricycle. This could be with motive to commit fraud or as a result of mistake on the part of the officers at work.

(iii) Wrong Sales Allocation: Staff under a particular state tricycle licensing office indulges in registering of tricycle that does not belong to their state.

(iv) Improper Accounting: There is the tendency of the cashier involved in the handling of income generated to make mistake during this process, thus having some measures of inaccuracy in the work.

(v) There is difficulty at times in tracing a record/information cautioning a tricycle owner due to improper information keeping as a result of carelessness or volume in the size of record kept.