The Federal Government has suspended the recently introduced cashless toll collection system at airport gates nationwide following widespread gridlock that caused many travellers to miss their flights.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, announced the decision yesterday while briefing State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Keyamo said the suspension followed concerns expressed by President Tinubu over the hardship faced by Nigerians since the electronic payment system was introduced less than a week ago.

According to the minister, the policy, designed to eliminate cash handling at toll points and curb revenue leakages, had instead created severe traffic bottlenecks at airport access gates, particularly in Abuja and Lagos.

“The President was very concerned about the welfare of Nigerians and the fact that many people were missing their flights due to the gridlock created by the new system,” Keyamo said.

He explained that President Tinubu directed the immediate suspension of the cashless system and ordered aviation authorities to revert temporarily to the previous payment arrangement while a more efficient electronic system is developed.

Keyamo said travellers, who had already purchased electronic toll cards, would still be able to use them under a temporary hybrid arrangement that allows both card and cash payments.

He added that the government would review and perfect the electronic toll collection framework to ensure it achieves its objective of transparency without creating operational challenges for motorists.

The minister also disclosed that the Federal Government planned to engage private sector partners to help develop and operate a more efficient electronic tolling system.

He stressed that while the administration remained committed to modernising toll collection across airport facilities, the immediate priority is to relieve the traffic congestion that has disrupted travel plans for many Nigerians.

MEANWHILE, experts in the Nigerian aviation industry have described the directive of President Tinubu to suspend the cashless payment system at all airport tollgates as a good development.

Those spoken to by The Guardian said the ‘Go Cashless’ policy system adopted by FAAN was good for the system, but was poorly implemented without options for users.

Several motorists, travellers and airport users have been trapped in the traffic gridlock that has continued to consume productive human hours since Sunday, March 1, 2026, when the policy was introduced.

Many of the users of the facilities had accused FAAN of poor campaigns on the policy and called on the agency to reverse its decision and return to the drawing board for effective planning.

Hundreds of travellers in the last 96 hours of the policy implementation had missed their flights, while unauthorised motorcyclists used the opportunity to exploit desperate travellers.

Speaking on the issue in an interview with The Guardian, an aviation analyst, Dr Alex Nwuba, said that FAAN’s approach towards the implementation of the policy was wrong.

While he agreed that the policy would block loopholes in the system, he insisted the policy could have been implemented in phases, rather than an outright ban on cash payment.

Also, an aviation security expert, Group. Capt. John Ojikutu (retd) queried the placement of the tollgates.

Speaking with the paper, Ojikutu emphasised that the tollgate at the Lagos airport did not capture every user of the airport and lauded Tinubu for its suspension.

Also, an industry analyst, Olumide Ohunayo, said that the priority of FAAN should have been on how to ensure seamless traffic flow at the tollgate, which it had failed to execute in the last three days.

Rather, he said the focus of FAAN was on revenue drive, rather than ensuring harmony in the system.

He advised the authority to return to the drawing board before returning to the implementation stage once again.

An aviation source, who didn’t want his name mentioned, said that FAAN failed to explore every option available to it before going ahead with the policy.