Motorists and travellers heading to Nigeria’s busiest airports can no heave a sigh of relief as President Bola Tinubu has ordered the immediate suspension of the newly introduced cashless payment system at airport toll gates nationwide.
The policy had triggered massive traffic gridlock and caused many passengers to miss their flights.
The announcement was made by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, shortly after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the State House in Abuja.
According to the minister, the president intervened following widespread complaints from travellers stranded in long queues at the entrances of the Lagos and Abuja airports.
Mr. Keyamo explained that President Tinubu was deeply concerned about the hardship Nigerians were facing, particularly passengers who lost valuable travel time and even missed scheduled flights because of the congestion created by the payment system.
Out of what he described as empathy for Nigerians, the president directed that the policy be suspended immediately and that authorities revert to the previous method of payment until a smoother and more efficient system can be developed.
He clarified that the decision was not an endorsement of cash payments, but a temporary step aimed at clearing the severe gridlock that had built up around the airport toll gates, especially in Lagos and Abuja.
The cashless policy, introduced less than a week ago by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, was designed to curb corruption and improve revenue collection at airport entry points.
For more than sixty years, toll payments at Nigerian airports had been largely cash-based, making the new digital system a major operational shift.
For now, however, authorities say the priority is restoring smooth access to the airports while a more reliable payment framework is worked out.
Reporting By Nosa Aituamen