The Lagos State Government in Nigeria has decided to deal with the numerous defective vehicles which are found on its streets by introducing a new road worthiness test.

From next month all vehicles of five years old or more are to be submitted for mechanical tests at government designated centres every year.

And any vehicle which fails the test will be ordered off the road until the identified defects are repaired.

The move has been criticised by many drivers who say it is not fair to impose such a test in a difficult economic climate.

But Lagos State Commissioner for Transport Abiola Johnson has told the BBC that it is not beyond the means of the average car owner.

And he said it was important to make sure safer vehicles are on the streets, saying probably 90% of vehicles in Nigeria would fail a test overseas.

"If they are rickety, unrepairable, unserviceable then they should not be on the streets - they should be withdrawn," he told the BBC.

"If you fail the test - contrary to what is done in the UK where you are given only three days - we have allowed 30 days."

This would allow time to pay for repairs and return the car to get a certificate, he said.

He said he understood that most people could not afford new vehicles, but he said that a yearly test costing 1,000 naira (about £6) was not unrealistic when people spend 200 naira to watch a football match.

He also rejected suggestions that the move was just another scheme to make money for the state, saying that half the fee would go to the garages who would need to pay for new testing equipment.