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• We’ll ensure enforcement of new policy –Airport authority
By Chinelo Obogo
Passengers and motorists plying Airport Road and Ikeja have continued to groan as the traffic gridlock around the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, which started on Sunday, March 1, enters the fourth day with no respite in sight.
Motorists had on Sunday, endured a chaotic start of the week as a cashless payment policy announced months earlier by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), took off. The policy triggered severe gridlock around Lagos airport access roads.
The horror forced some passengers to miss scheduled flights. The congestion, blamed on payment bottlenecks and heavy vehicular buildup, left motorists stranded for hours. Businesses around the airport corridor also reported slow patronage as movement slowed to a crawl.
The FAAN’s ‘Go cashless’ policy, which took full effect on Sunday, requires motorists to either purchase a payment card or use their debit cards to pay toll fees, completely barring the use of cash at all revenue points. The enforcement of the policy, however, caused a severe gridlock that paralysed activities and movement around the airport. A motorist told Daily Sun that he spent exactly two and a half hours in traffic when the policy rolled out on Sunday. “The traffic gridlock started from around the fuel station heading towards the toll gate. We were stuck in traffic for at least two and a half hours. By the time we crawled to the toll gate, we saw commercial motorcyclists, already outlawed, conveying passengers who had to leave their cars so that they don’t miss their flights. The situation was terrible. A friend of mine actually called me to lament missing his flight.
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“The FAAN needs to revert to collecting cash because if this could happen on a Sunday, you can then imagine what would happen on a work day. The truth remains that FAAN doesn’t have the infrastructure to carry out this type of policy. They need to have at least 16 gates, eight on each side, where motorists can pass through for this to be effective,” the motorist said.
In an interview with Daily Sun, FAAN’s Director of Public Affairs, Henry Agbebire, had on Sunday said that the situation was caused mainly because many motorists delayed obtaining the cashless card until the very last moment. He explained that the policy was driven by the Federal Government’s directive mandating that all revenue points across the country cease accepting cash payments. He stated that FAAN had launched the cashless card six months ago and had since been sensitising the public, especially in Abuja and Lagos, but lamented that a lot of people took it for granted. To ease the situation, he said FAAN set up two registration spots near the toll area, where motorists could sign up and obtain cards on the spot, with most vehicles being diverted to these centres. He described the registration process as straightforward, though he noted that users are typically required to register online, download the card and then activate it before use.
Agbebire, who said he had been on the ground since yesterday morning, acknowledged the severity of the traffic congestion, but stated that officials worked hard to manage the situation. He said that FAAN had since issued a public statement expressing regret over the inconvenience caused to road users and tendering an apology.
To mitigate the problem, he said: “FAAN plans to deploy additional staff at the toll area from today to help motorists register, activate their cards and move through the gates more quickly. Plans are in place for that but people really need to come to terms with the reality on the ground now that it has to be cashless.”
It was expected that by Tuesday, the traffic would have subsided due to the fact that more staff of FAAN were deployed to the toll gate on Monday morning but that was not the case as Daily Sun can confirm that despite assurances by the Authority, the gridlock had gotten worse with the traffic extending further than the previous days.
