Lagos, Nigeria – The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the government agency responsible for managing all commercial airports in Nigeria, has reported issuing more than 70,000 Go Cashless cards as part of a nationwide effort to reduce congestion and stabilise airport operations following the rollout of a cashless payment policy.
The Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at FAAN, Henry Agbebire, speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday, acknowledged the initial challenges caused by the transition and apologised to affected passengers.
“I think first I should start by apologising. We express our profound apology for the distress some of our road users and passengers have gone through in the last two days. But the good news is we had to mitigate and make efforts to ensure that the pressure right now has reduced a bit. Things got better today, and we are hoping that in a few days’ time, just a few days from now, things will normalise,” he said.
Agbebire noted the rapid uptake of the program, explaining, “But interestingly, as I speak to you, we’ve done over 70,000 total cards, and gradually we believe the tension will go down as the government’s Go Cashless program becomes more aggressively recognised and utilised.”
FAAN had begun sensitisation and onboarding of passengers to the Go Cashless system in October 2025, but many travellers delayed registration until the March 1, 2026 enforcement date mandated by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The rush to register cards caused long queues and heavy traffic at airport gates.
“To put a context to this, we started sometime in October last year to sensitise people. We launched what we call the Go Cashless card at FAAN. From that point on, we started sensitising, advertising, and onboarding people. Between October last year and the 28th of February, we had on-boarded about 30,000 cards. But it looked like a lot of people, as is typical in Nigeria, wait for the last minute. When the deadline came, because this is a Federal Government directive, March 1st was a no-go-back date. Suddenly, we had to roll out, and the pressure was heavy. A lot of people on the road that day had not registered. So, we deployed people to register them to get a card. That was a problem. We gave other options, but unfortunately, that is what it is, and we found ourselves in this situation,” he explained.
Agbebire said the last three days have seen an additional 40,000 cards issued. He added that while four payment options exist, the Go Cashless card is the fastest and most efficient for accessing airport gates.
“There are several options four of them, actually. But the Go Cashless card is the simplest and easiest. That’s why we on-boarded that quite early, so we had enough time for people to get a card. Now, it is contactless. When you get to the access gate, you need the bars to open as fast as possible. When we on-boarded the card, we felt it was the fastest, and we had to ensure we promoted that regularly,” he said.
Other options include debit cards and electronic vehicle tags (E-tags), which allow frequent users faster access, though they are slightly slower than the Go Cashless card. FAAN expects traffic flow at airports to stabilise within a week and advised travellers to allow extra time for check-in.
FAAN’s Go Cashless policy officially began on Sunday, March 1, 2026, ending cash payments at airport toll gates, car parks, and executive lounges. The initiative, developed in partnership with Paystack, aims to make payments “faster, safer, and more convenient” while improving transparency and potentially increasing revenue by up to 75 per cent through reduced cash handling.
Okay News reports that initial implementation caused some delays, with passengers at Lagos and Abuja airports missing flights due to congestion and reliance on slower point-of-sale systems. FAAN emphasises that the system will normalise in the coming days as adoption grows.
