Hundreds of motorists were left stranded on Wednesday, after the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) payment system malfunctioned, forcing many to pay twice for services or abandon their transactions altogether.

The breakdown, which plagued the eCitizen platform for much of the day, drew sharp criticism from vehicle owners who flooded social media with complaints about missing invoices and duplicate deductions.

One frustrated motorist wrote, "There seems to be an issue with the payment system today. Why the glitch?"

As tempers flared, NTSA acknowledged that its systems had been hit by technical difficulties.

The Authority confirmed that a special team from the eCitizen platform had been dispatched to fix the faults.

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In a statement issued through its official X page, the regulator said, "We apologise for this. The eCitizen team is working to resolve the issue. We will alert you as soon as the issue is fixed."

The disruption caused long delays for those seeking crucial services, including vehicle licensing and road service permits.

Many motorists said they were forced to make repeated attempts without success, while others complained that they could not access accurate invoices.

This is not the first time drivers have been inconvenienced.

Barely two months ago, NTSA carried out large-scale system maintenance that left most of its services unavailable for days.

Wednesday’s hitch has therefore raised concerns over the reliability of the platform that motorists rely on for mandatory compliance.

NTSA has pledged to restore normalcy once repairs are complete, but for many road users, the damage has already been done, with wasted time, money, and mounting distrust in the systems meant to serve them.