Somalilandsun- The Government of Somaliland has completed arrangements to digitalize vehicle registration.
“These shall ease vehicle registration as well as identification”said the minister of Transport and roads development Abdilahi Abokor Osman during a function unveiling the new car number plates adapted by the government of Somaliland.
The unveiling function held at Ambassador hotel in Hargeisa was witnessed by ministry officials, traffic Police department commanders, transporters among many others.
Currently vehicle registration in the country is done manual thence a cumbersome process for both the registrar of motor vehicles and owners it to mention the constraints accrued during exchange of ownership.
According to minister Abdilahi Abokor the new generation car number plates also includes a a logo imposed flag of Somalia that are long lasting as opposed to current that includes a small flag which peels off very fast.
“Apart from the new features the plates are solely in the Latin script thence visible at a distance of 80 metres”said the Transport minister
At the same time the ample visibility availed also helps with car security for it deters ease of duplication facilitated by the ones in use now.
As per the use of Latin script only thence elimination of Arabic the ministry informed that this was done to increase visibility and reduce instances of plates duplication following studies in numerous countries.
Said he, “my ministry studied car number plates in use by 22 Arab countries where it was discovered that of the total 14 utilized only Latin script on their car plates while the remainder 8 used both scripts” while stressing that this research outcome showed that 64% of Arab nations utilize only Latin script on their car number plates while 8% use both Arabic and Latin.
The ministry thence used its research findings to justify the choice of only Latin script numbers in addition to the fact that use of only one script increases visibility from a far distance since the numbers are bigger.
Similarity to the now being phased out car plates include classification for Private, Government , Diplomatic Corps, UN and NGO owned.
But distinct and completely novel is the specific region of registration identification tag as in
1. MJ for Maroodi -Jeeh (Hargeisa)
2. AW for Awdal (Borame)
3. SX for Sahil. (Berbera)
4. TG for Toghdeer (Burao)
5. SL for Sool (Las Anad) and
6. SN for Sanaag (Erigavo)
particpants at the unveiling ceremony more traffic polIce Officers were very enthusiastic opinionating that it once implemented shall make their day to day duties less cumbersome especially with the introduction of computerized monitors.
The new digitalized car plates which are expected to be in use nationwide within six months comes in the heels of newly initiated use of digitized driving license in Somaliland.
The now coming to fruitation vehicle registration and driving license digitalization project was initiated by the immediate past administration of President Silanyo in October 2017 when the then ministry of public works, transport and housing entered into a contract with Global Tech Solutions-GTS Company a hargeisa company.
During the launch of the system to be jointly operated by the ministry of public works and GTS Company it was revealed that the digitalization of vehicle registration shall avail traffic police instant access to relevant details anywhere anytime.
This minister is full of bs people cannot afford the amount of money on this plates. Secondly people should be allowed to get them during renewal of their registrations as it happens around the world when plates are changed.
It seems he wants to make quick money people should refuse this fees period. Our people are poor and a lot of this people make money from their vehicles working as taxis and cant even get enough to feed their families.
If this minister is rich from the diaspora and getting paid well apart from what he gets from corruption then the regular somalilanders are not like him.