Why President Tinubu halted cashless policy at airport – FAAN boss, Kuku

Earlier in the week, the Federal Government halted further implementation of the cashless policy at the airports following the embarrassment caused to travellers, denting the image of the country as foreign nationals missed their flights, following the heavy gridlock. But the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, Thursday in Lagos addressed the media, explaining the reasons behind the discontinuation of the exercise. She also said the test run recoded a huge success even with the difficulties experienced. CHUKWUEMEKE IWELUNMO brings the report. Here’s the excerpts.

What led to the halt in the implementation of the cashless policy at the access gate of the airports?

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 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.

We started a lot of enlightenment, even the National Orientation Agency, you can check their Instagram and their social media handles, had publicised it as far back as October of last year. 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.

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 laudable initiative. The fact 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.

Is there a new deadline for this new approach?

He’s actually given us some 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.

I do 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 we 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.

When is it likely to return?

So from what we have so far, look, there are a few moving parts. So one is to make sure that the technology works. Two is secondly, to make sure that a lot of our users are more enlightened.

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, are you talking about the technology and 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.

And to be frank, we actually had at least 99% success with the cashless cards that were deployed. However, we did realize that it created a significant amount of gridlock, especially in Lagos. You would note that the location of the toll gates in itself is not necessarily ideal.

And I say that because it’s 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. So 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. 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 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 it’s applicable.

So, I don’t see any dilemma. So sorry, which we got. So again, because there was quite a bit of gridlock now, I’m sure as you’re passing through that area, there’s a lot more advert enlightenment.

So, people know. So, as we continue the process, people should at least know that, look, it’s not a process where it’s completely halted. It’s an instruction to revert back to status quo.

You can use your cards and potentially still be able to use cash until you purchase your card. It’s more to allow people to be onboarded in additional time. Now, one of the, one of the main reasons for actually one of the reasons for this process is to actually block leakages.

So what measures are you going to put in place to actually ensure that what’s supposed to go to federal government goes to federal government and not people’s private pocket?

 So you would recall that it was actually the purpose of the federal government circular. But when we’re doing things, I think it’s important that we’re doing well.

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 in the process, 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.

All of those checks and balances will also be put in place. Beyond intervention, many people are of the view that perhaps a no pilot implementation stage, we’re not taking into consideration.

Do you think finance doesn’t work in that level of implementation?

That is a Okay, so what I will say is that we probably didn’t have enough time for the pilot stage based on the directive. I mentioned earlier that there was a bit of pressure on us. And this is what gives us more time. So for us now, I would say that the pilot stage continues, because it allows us to test understand what the challenges are, and gives people additional time.

We take the feedback from the challenges and the gridlock. But I do want to say that the success that we saw in terms of registration, and of course, for Mr. President to understand.