President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday ordered the immediate suspension of the newly introduced cashless payment system at airports nationwide, following widespread complaints of congestion and passenger hardship
The directive came after reports that the policy, implemented barely a week ago, had led to significant gridlock at airport gates, causing many travelers to miss their flights.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, disclosed the development while briefing journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting held at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, and presided over by the President.
Keyamo explained that the cashless initiative was introduced to curb corruption and boost federal revenue collection, ending a practice that had existed for over five decades. However, he admitted that the rollout created operational bottlenecks.
“We introduced our toolkits across the country in order to eliminate corruption and optimize revenue for the federal government. You recall that this practice has gone on for more than 50 years.
“With the introduction of the cashless system less than two weeks ago, it has created a lot of gridlock across the country. Mr. President was very concerned about the welfare of Nigerians and the fact that most Nigerians were losing or missing their flights.
“And 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.”
According to the minister, President Tinubu instructed the ministry to revert to the previous arrangement temporarily and redesign a more efficient system.
“He directed me to go back to the drawing board. We should revert to the status quo, suspend the present system whereby people have to pay through the various means we introduced at the gates across the country, and then perfect the system properly.
“In fact, the President directed me that this should not take too long and that 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 this money at the gates to the extent that it will not create the gridlock we are having right now.
“So I am hereby directing, also based on the directive of the President, to suspend the present process. We should go back to the drawing board.”
The suspension takes immediate effect as the ministry works to redesign the payment framework to ensure smoother operations at airports across the country.
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APC will stain your white.
Very unstable people.