By Cosmas Okereafor
The Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Airport Authority(FAAN), Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, few hours ago explained what caused the gridlock at the acces roads of Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, following the implementation of cashless policy embarked upon by FAAN and now temporarily halted by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu.This development is not unconnected after the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Barr, Festus Keyamo, told State House Correspondents at Abuja, that, the president, has directed the suspension of the “Go Cashless” initiative rolled out by FAAN that started this month.There were gridlocks around toll gates at Murtala Mohammed Airport (MMA), when the program finally took off.
The FAAN boss, Mrs Kuku who spoked to aviation journalists averred that, FAAN started enlightenment campaign early enough as far back as october last year, 2025.According to her “We started a lot of enlightenment, even the National Orientation Agency (NOA), you can check their instagram and their social media handles, had publicized 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 rollout but understanding the nature of every environment.
He saw the gridlock that we were having as 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 statuquo or hybrid approach. That is what we are doing. So this is a win for the industry”. She stressed.The FAAN helmsman however pointed that many passengers as well as commuters around the airport environment did not realize that FAAN will stick to the march 1st deadline that was announced earlier saying that FAAN between October to March 3rd recorded over a hundred thousand users that enrolled which she said was a major win. She emphasized that, the major concern of the authority is to make sure that, the technology works with hope also that, the users will be more enlightened about the process.
“We give more people the options to pick up whether its 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”.Mrs Kuku who stressed that FAAN performed excellently well with the access cards however reiterated that people should realize that, the process was not completely halted but an instruction to revert back to status quo.
