Managing Director Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria FAAN Olubunmi Kuku says the agency will Adopt Hybrid Approach which is aimed at accommodating cash and the Cashless.
This is coming shortly after the suspension of the cashless policy by President Bola Tinubu asking FAAN to revert to status quo and ensure that the process itself is improved upon before it gets rolled out.
Kuku, while addressing aviation Correspondents at the General Aviation Terminal, Murtala Muhammed Airport lagos noted that the directive which is not necessarily a suspension is a win for the agency.
“I consider this to be a major win for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria as well as the Ministry of Aviation.”
She stated that “So if you recall, we actually started the cashless policy last year. We started alot of enlightenment, even the National Orientation Orientation Agency, you can check their Instagram and their social media handles,had publicise it as far back as October of last year”.
She further stated that “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 ”
Kuku noted that the new approach will take care of cash and cashless “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 this laudable initiative. The fact that the President is not just taking Federal government initiatives or policy roll-out 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 added
On whether there is a new deadline for the new approach, Kuku stressed that the agency was given 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”.
The FAAN boss disclosed that despite all of the enlightenment that the agency had embarked on, alot of passengers as well as commuters did not realise that the agency will actually stick to the March 1st deadline that was given to FAAN.
“I would say 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.”
On when the policy is expected to return kuku noted that there are a few moving parts. It is important to ensure that the technology works and secondly to make sure that a lot of users are enlightened.
“We give more people 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 learnt that are made in other regions as well.”
Kuku stressed that the exercise has been successful when it comes to user registration and the number of people who were on board
” And 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 itself is not necessarily ideal. And I say that because its 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. Some 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. But Mr President saw it, 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.”
She noted that there is no reason for card users to be worried despite the suspension because they are still able to use their cards.
“Am sure that in the next couple of days once we sort of gone down on the gridlock that we had over the last few days, we will look at it again and see how we can use the hybrid approach”.
“If you listen to the Minister’s interview after the Federal Executive Council, he did say hybrid approach which still allows users to potentially use their cards and also pass through the toll. But at least now, we will still be able to accommodate cash where its applicable”.
Kuku disclosed that going forward adquate measures will be in place to effectively roll out the policy
“We go back and make sure that in the drawing table, the change management process is right. The enlightenment is right. And of course, to make sure that even ,even when you continue to
collect cash, there is at least a way before you do a full transition to also minimise the leakages that we see now,”
She noted that checks and balances will also be put in place, beyond intervention, adding that they will also take feedback from challenges and the gridlock for improved service.
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