… Says Policy Achieved 99%Success
…Lagos Airport Tollgate Location Not Necessarily Ideal
The Managing Director an Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria(FAAN), Mrs Olubunmi Kuku has said that the cashless policy introduced by the agency and later suspended by President Bola Tinubu was not suspension but a directive for FAAN to improve on the process.
She said this while briefing Journalists today at the Protocol Lounge of the Murtala Muhammed Airport(MMA), Lagos,
Recall that FAAN commenced cashless policy on March 1, 2026.
However, the introduction of the cashless policy brought chaos to motorists, airport workers and travellers at FAAN tollgates.
The policy brought about gridlock at airport road leading to Oshodi and Ikeja .
According to her, “You heard the Honorable Minister yesterday following the Federal Executive Council meeting where Mr. President has asked us not necessarily to suspend but to make sure that the process itself is improved before it gets ruled out.”
“I consider this to be a major win for the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria as well as the Ministry of Aviation. So if you recall, we actually started the cashless policy last year,” he said.
The FAAN boss said that the agency wanted to operate hybrid system where the cashless policy go side by side with cash based system but that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) gave the agency a deadline within which to begin cashless policy.
On creating awareness about the policy, she said, “We started a lot of enlightenment, even the National Orientation Agency, you can check their Instagram and their social media handles, had publicised it as far back as October of last year. We were asked to implement a federal government directive which was done at the Federal Executive Council.
“This was what we were pushing towards, but unfortunately we were given a deadline.We had actually asked for a hybrid approach that allows us to do both cashless as well as automated. So for me and the agency, we actually thank Mr. President for this laudable initiative. The fact that the President is not just taking federal government initiatives or policy rollouts but understanding the nature of every environment,” he said.
She said that the President saw the traffic gridlock that FAAN was having as a result of the introduction of the cashless policy.
“We were rolling out the cashless policy and in his good nature and understanding of our environment, took it upon himself to ask us to revert back to status quo or the hybrid approach. That’s what we’re doing. So this is a win for the industry.Is there a new deadline for this new approach?
“He’s actually given us some time to go back and refine. So if you know, we were working with the private sector, the technology that we have actually works. We also had four modes of payment, but what he said is refine it, make sure that we have enough users.I do want to say that despite all of the enlightenments that were started, I believe that a lot of passengers as well as commuters did not realise that we will actually stick to the March 1st deadline that was given to us.’
She informed that from October to February or from October to March 3rd, FAAN had enrolled over 100,000 users, adding that 60,000 of the users were enrolled in the last three days.
” So for me, that is a major win,” Kuku said.
On when the suspended policy will be Re- introduced, “From what we have so far, look, there are a few moving parts. One is to make sure that the technology works. Secondly, to make sure that a lot of our users are more enlightened.We give more people the options to pick up whether it’s the cards, the e-tags, and then bring on the private sector on board to ensure that we’re sort of using lessons learned that are made in other regions as well.
On the success recorded, Kuku said, ” To be frank, we actually had at least 99% success with the cashless cards that were deployed. However, we did realise that it created a significant amount of gridlock, especially in Lagos. You would note that the location of the toll gates in itself is not necessarily ideal.And I say that because it’s not just for airport users, right? Within the Lagos environment, you have other commuters who are either people working in the airport area or commuting to other areas. So going to Ikeja , other locations. So we will continue to have unique users, not just repeat users, being service workers of the airport environment and passengers, hence the amount of gridlock.In Abuja, for example, by day three, enforcement only started on Sunday. By Wednesday, we actually had a reduction in the amount of gridlock.”
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