President Bola Tinubu has halted the cashless payment policy at airport toll gates nationwide after severe gridlock left many passengers missing their flights.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, disclosed the suspension on Wednesday following the Federal Executive Council meeting at the State House in Abuja.
He explained that the President ordered an immediate reversion to the previous arrangement pending the development of a more effective system.
“Mr. President was very concerned about the welfare of Nigerians and the fact that most Nigerians were losing their flights, missing their flights.
“So Mr. President, out of empathy, directed today that we should suspend the present system because it creates a lot of gridlock, and Nigerians are suffering as a result of it,” Keyamo stated.
He stressed that the primary motivation behind the suspension was to address the traffic congestion at the Lagos and Abuja airport toll gates.
“The major reason why Mr. President took this decision is to eliminate the present gridlock that we are experiencing, especially at both the Lagos and Abuja toll gates leading to the airport.
“That’s the major reason, not that the President is happy with the cash system,” the minister clarified.
Policy backlash and traffic chaos
The cashless regime was rolled out less than a week ago to curb corruption and improve revenue generation at toll points managed by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria across the country.
For more than five decades, FAAN had relied on cash collections from drivers at toll gates, parking areas, and other revenue points within airports nationwide.
However, the shift to electronic payments triggered heavy traffic buildup on airport access roads, with travellers reporting prolonged delays and missed departures.
Keyamo revealed that President Tinubu has instructed the ministry to reassess the approach and refine the system.
“In fact, the President directed me that this should not take too long. It should not take too long, and I should get back to him on this issue.
“We should go back and, if possible, even engage the private sector to ensure that we establish an electronic system by which we can collect these revenues for the federal government at the gates, to the extent that it will not create the gridlock that we are having right now,” the minister stated.
A move toward hybrid arrangement
Keyamo further announced that an interim hybrid model would be introduced, permitting both cash transactions and the use of FAAN prepaid cards already obtained by some motorists.
“We are going to do a hybrid system whereby we can collect cash temporarily and, of course, use the cards that they have collected temporarily for now,” Keyamo said.
The minister further disclosed that the government would collaborate with private sector stakeholders to design a more streamlined payment framework that eliminates cash without causing congestion.
“This is also a platform for me to announce that we will be engaging various private sector participants.
“Mr. President said if we have to pay commission, we have to pay commission, but we’ll bring in private sector participants to help us devise a much more efficient payment system that will still eliminate cash at the gate,” he stated.
Under the suspended arrangement, motorists were required to secure prepaid cards or use electronic platforms before gaining access through airport toll gates, but the rollout resulted in bottlenecks as many struggled to adapt to the new process.
Airport users took to social media to complain about spending hours in traffic while attempting to reach the terminals, sharing videos that showed gridlock stretching several kilometres from the toll gates.
The Lagos and Abuja airports, which account for the highest passenger volumes in the country, were among the hardest hit, with travellers arriving far earlier than usual to avoid missing their flights.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria had defended the cashless initiative as part of efforts to plug revenue leakages and enhance transparency in toll collections, arguing that the previous cash-based system was vulnerable to fraud and underremittance over the years.
The halted system was designed to enable real-time monitoring of revenue and eliminate chances of diversion by collection agents.
Nevertheless, weak execution and insufficient infrastructure for smooth electronic transactions led to operational disruption.
The minister did not indicate when the upgraded cashless model would be reintroduced but underscored that the President expects a swift resolution.
