Nigeria’s Federal Airports Authority went fully cashless at Lagos and Abuja airports on March 1, replacing cash toll gates with a Paystack-powered prepaid card system covering more than 300,000 monthly vehicle entries. Day one brought gridlock, frustrated passengers and a handful of missed flights. It also proved, decisively, that not a single naira in cash changed hands at the gate.
- FAAN’s “Go Cashless” programme took full effect at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja from March 1, 2026, eliminating cash at all airport toll gates, car parks and VIP lounges
- Motorists are required to obtain a free FAAN prepaid NFC card, fund it with a minimum of N1,000 (a N500 maintenance fee is deducted on first load), and tap at the Paystack terminal on entry, lifting the boom gate in seconds with no PIN required
- Registration is available online at gocashless.faan.gov.ng via QR code, or in person at FAAN commercial offices and airport access gates; cards have no expiry date and can be shared across a household under one wallet
- Lagos and Abuja access gates alone record over 300,000 vehicle entries per month, making them among the highest-volume revenue points in any federal agency in Nigeria
- The programme was first announced on September 26, 2025, with a pilot rollout at Lagos and Abuja on September 30; the March 1 date marked full mandatory enforcement, not a surprise launch
- FAAN developed the system in partnership with Paystack, with nationwide expansion to all FAAN-managed airports planned by end of 2026
- On day one, FAAN deployed on-the-spot registration centres near toll areas and additional staff to assist motorists; FAAN Director of Public Affairs Henry Agbebire confirmed no cash was accepted or collected at any gate
- Day-one disruption was caused almost entirely by last-minute compliance: motorists who had received months of notice choosing to register at the gate on enforcement day rather than in advance
- POS payments using commercial bank debit cards are also accepted as an alternative to the Go Cashless card, though FAAN notes the tap-and-go card processes entries significantly faster
The scale of what FAAN is solving is easy to underestimate. Nigeria’s airports have long been synonymous with cash collection at multiple points inside and outside terminals, a system that creates obvious conditions for leakage at every touchpoint between a motorist and a toll operator. FAAN itself acknowledged the problem directly, describing the cashless mandate as designed to “block leakages and align with the federal government directive to ensure revenues are collected through cashless means.” The federal government had already prohibited all ministries, departments and agencies from collecting physical cash following persistent violations of e-payment and Treasury Single Account policies. FAAN was one of the last high-volume agencies to fully comply. The September 2025 pilot gave the system five months of real-world testing in Lagos and Abuja before the March cutover, and that runway matters: Paystack’s contactless terminals at the gates were not improvised on the day, they were already embedded in the infrastructure.
The Bigger Picture: First-day chaos at a major infrastructure transition is not evidence of a bad policy. It is evidence of a policy that held firm. Every motorist who showed up to register at the gate on March 1 rather than the week before understood, by the end of that queue, that the old system was genuinely gone. That is a harder message to deliver than it sounds in a country where enforcement timelines routinely slip. FAAN publicised the March 1 date for months, set up on-site registration support, and did not blink when the queues formed. Lagos and Abuja airports process over 300,000 vehicle entries per month at those two locations alone. At even a modest cash leakage rate per transaction, the annual revenue recapture from full electronic collection runs into billions of naira. The Paystack partnership also signals something beyond compliance: it positions Nigeria’s busiest airports on the same contactless infrastructure stack used by the country’s most sophisticated commercial payment environments. When the nationwide rollout reaches all FAAN airports by end of 2026, the template will already be proven. The passengers who missed flights on March 1 have a legitimate grievance about their own preparation. The reform itself is overdue and correct.
Source: Daily Trust / Technext
