The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku has said that President Bola Tinubu asked the Authority not to necessarily suspend the full implementation of the cashless policy but to make sure that the process itself is improved upon before it gets rolled out.
Speaking during an interview with Aviation Journalists in Lagos, Kuku stated that she considered this to be a major win for the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria as well as the Ministry of Aviation.
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 upon 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”.
Kuku stated further that a lot of enlightenment had been done on the policy, adding that even the National Orientation Agency, had publicized it as far back as October of last year.
FAAN MD explained that the Authority was asked to implement a federal government directive which was done at the Federal Executive Council, noting that this was what they were pushing towards, but because it was given a deadline.
Kuku said FAAN had actually asked for a hybrid approach that allows it to do both cashless as well as automated.
While thanking Mr. President for this laudable initiative, Kuku explained further that the President is not just taking federal government initiatives or policy rollouts but understanding the nature of every environment.
“He saw the traffic 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 status quo or the hybrid approach. That’s what we’re doing. So this is a win for the industry” she stated.
Kuku said the President has given FAAN some time to go back and refine the process.
In her words: “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 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 realize that were will actually stick to the March 1st deadline that was given to us.
I would say that from October to February or from October to March 3rd, we actually had a hundred thousand, we had over a hundred thousand users that we enrolled, of which 60,000 of those users were actually enrolled in the last three days. So for me, that is a major win”.
Kuku said the authority will make sure that the technology works and to make sure that a lot of its users are more enlightened.
She emphasised that: “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. When you say the process, so are you talking about the technology? Are you talking about the gridlock? Which part of it? Okay, so a couple of things. So I mentioned earlier that the process in itself was successful when it comes to user registration and the number of people who were able to onboard”.
Kuku disclosed that it had at least 99% success with the cashless cards that were deployed, stressing that they realized that it created a significant amount of gridlock, especially in Lagos.
Kuku noted that within the Lagos environment, there are other commuters who are either people working in the airport area or commuting to other areas like going to Ikeja, other locations and as a result of this FAAN will continue to have unique users, not just repeat users, being service workers of the airport environment and passengers, hence the amount of gridlock.
She observed that in Abuja by day three, enforcement only started on Sunday and by Wednesday, FAAN actually had a reduction in the amount of gridlock.
We saw it. And he looked at it and said, look, we don’t want passengers missing their flights. We don’t want to have a negative experience.
So for him to go back, look at the policy and say, Aviation, you have more time. Roll this out and implement this properly when you’ve onboarded the right number of users, given a number of appropriate channels. I don’t see the dilemma, right? Because they’re still able to use their card.
So I’m sure that in the next couple of days, once we’ve sort of gone down on the gridlock that we had over the last few days, we’ll look at it again and see how we can use the hybrid approach. If you listen to the
She maintained that the Minister’s during an interview after the Federal Executive Council said hybrid approach, which still allows users to potentially use their carrds and also pass through the toll will be allowed.
FAAN boss noted that at least now, it will still be able to accommodate cash where it’s applicable.
On blocking of leakages, Kuku said: “We go back to make sure that in the drawing table, the change management process is right. The enlightenment is right. And of course, to make sure even when you continue to collect cash, there is at least a way before you do a full transition to also minimize the leakages that we see now. So all of those checks and balances will also be put in place”.
