By Petronella Sibeene WINDHOEK The Roads Authority has launched personalized number plates, presenting an opportunity for motorists with expensive tastes to paste their desired names or numbers as car registration numbers. Chief Executive Officer of the Roads Authority, Erastus Ikela, on Monday said that Namibian motorists would, starting June 04 this year, have an opportunity to display the licence number plate of their choice. He however cautioned that such number plates should not be obscene, offensive or blasphemous. The personalized licence numbers – to be issued on a “first come-first serve” basis – will carry a maximum of seven alphanumerical characters followed by the national flag and the letters “NA” denoting Namibia. “The number can be numbers or letters or a combination of both. The colour scheme of the personalized number plates will be blue characters on a white background on an acrylic plastic number plate,” he explained. A personalized number will cost N$1 800 as a one-off payment while another N$240 will be paid annually as renewal fee. Although the personalized number plates will cost you, Ikela said that the plates would remain the property of the Roads Authority. In terms of revenue, the Roads Authority will through this exercise hope to raise more than N$1-million per annum. To accord everyone an opportunity, applications for the numbers will also be accepted via SMS during the initial stage. This will be accepted during the first two weeks only after which applications will have to be made through the appropriate registering authorities (NaTIS offices countrywide). The number to which an SMS could be sent will be publicized in the next few days. Once the applicant gets the approved personalized number, Ikela warned, it would have to be allocated to the vehicle within 21 says of acquiring it lest it is given to another applicant. A supplier has been identified to do the printing of personalized number plates. This, according to Ikela, was done to ensure proper control of the issuance of these numbers. The Roads Authority is tasked with the maintenance of the national road network with other added responsibilities of road inspection and vehicle and driver testing as well as motor vehicle registration and licencing.