By Ada Nkong
The federal government says there is no going back on the FAAN Cashless policy for payments at the toll gate and other revenue points in the airports.
Minister of aviation and aerospace development Festus Keyamo (SAN) said this while addressing journalists after observation and monitoring of activities at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International airport Abuja tollgate.
The minister explained that the President did not scrap the cashless policy but only suspended it while giving the ministry time to put things in place for seamless implementation .
“Because of the challenges it posed with implementation, we decided to go back to the drawing boards to see what we can do for now. One, to still make sure we collect revenue. and secondly, to ensure that we ease the traffic. And that is why we came up with this hybrid system now. So for those who have bought the cards before, the cashless cards, that once they buy the cards, it goes straight into TSA, the federation account.
“Those people still have their cards to use. For those who have not bought and who are not accustomed to the new system, we allow them a very minimal number of people to still use cash until we fully migrate to the cashless system. Look, there is no going back on the cashless system.
For those who think they can frustrate the cashless system because they like the system of collection of cash, we have passed that stage. In fact, there is a federal government directive effect memo on it saying that no federal agency should ever collect cash. So we have very limited time to do this hybrid system
He added that there will be no room for VIP passes as the automated process will not interact with individuals to determine their status but will only respond to payment.
In the interim, a hybrid method which allows both people with FAAN cards. POS payments and cash to access the airport.
In a related development, two drivers Hercules Anthony and Alexander Nyigba have complained about the quality of cards being sold at the moment. They approached the Minister with complaints that they made payment but were issued paper cards instead of the plastic cards initially being issued. They expressed reservations about the durability of paper cards and the prospects of paying for new cards in the event the card gets bad
Responding, the Minister allayed their fears of fresh payments for replacement with plastic cards and cautioned FAAN to ensure good quality cards are made available for purchase.
As incentives for getting the card, the minister said payments via card would be made cheaper than payments with cash
It would be recalled that on the 1st of March, the take off of cashless policy by FAAN caused serious disruptions at the airports in Lagos and Abuja with some air passengers trekking from the tollgates to avoid missing their flights. This led to Suspension of the policy by President Bola Tinubu
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