In this interview with IME AKPAN, the Airport Manager at the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Mrs. Victoria Shin-Aba speaks on a number of issues, including the introduction of cashless payments for every transaction, a policy she believes would curtail sharp practices.
What informed the cashless policy at the airports, especially at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport? It is aimed at creating enabling environment for businesses in Nigeria, for people coming to do business in Nigeria.
The airports especially the international airports as entry points into the country and that is why we try to make sure that everybody coming into the country to do business has an enabling environment in such a manner that they are not harassed and that they don’t pay what they are not supposed to pay.
We want them to pay in an easy and convenient way so that they do business easily. We have started with visa on arrival which is okay now.
People coming to do business in Nigeria will just go to the immigration website, fill the form and they will send something to them that will show the airline and on getting here, we have constructed a cubicle for innovation. It is very convenient and comfortable; we will use them to process the visa.
Again the cashless operation is for convenience, comfort and to reduce interactions and money changing hands.
And the basic thing is that no government official should handle cash. No cash transactions. They are now different modes of payment. We can do online transfer, POS. For FAAN, we are almost there and we are getting ready. FAAN has deployed POS to almost all our revenue points. When you come and want to do any business with FAAN, no FAAN staff will collect cash from you. It is either you do a transfer that goes straight to our Remita accounts, that is TSA account or you pay through the POS that still goes straight to Remita.
Then in case you don’t have ATM and you can’t do transfer and you have cash, we have some agents of Remita because the money goes to Remita. They will be strategically positioned to collect those cash. As they collect the cash, they issue receipt. We have a committee at the headquarters working on the cashless operations because it has to be in all the airports and not only the international. We are ironing out the grey areas but no government official as at today in Nigeria starting from May must handle cash.
If you don’t have an ATM (card) that uses the POS and you can’t do bank transfer, and maybe you cannot go to bank and pay and bring Remita confirmation of payment, you can go to the bank if it is convenient. The most important thing is the convenience of the passengers. Then, to make sure that cash does not change hands between government officials and passengers or customers, that is the basis for the cashless operations and for convenience.
What services are aff ected by the cashless policy? Some of them include: car park, cargo surcharge, casual operators, unscheduled fl ights, air cargo fee, cargo surcharge and access charge, not the main access charge because that has been concessioned. We have so many operations that involve money changing hands both at local and international on the FAAN side. In Customs, everybody knows that people pay duties and dutiable goods; aside oil, Customs is the next revenue generating agency for the federal government.
For the Immigration, people now pay for visa on arrival; for Quarantine, they pay too for some tests. For the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), they pay and the five per cent for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA). So there are so many revenues that come in direct at times at the airport. There are some that are not direct and there are some that are direct. For rent now, people don’t pay cash for rent.
They go to the bank and pay.
What are the benefits of the cashless initiative? It is just to curb corruption. When we need to exchange money, there is body language and so many things. Some people can shortchange payment and all those kind of things.
That one should be eliminated. Then the government wants to let the general public know that whatever services they are paying for is going into government coffers. So you are not giving me cash and the issue of ‘I don’t know where the money is going to’ will not be there any longer. They know that the money is going to the government.
Then for the comfort of their travelling public, they don’t need to carry cash. If you are travelling from abroad and you have your ATM card you should be able to transact your business and leave the airport. If you have internet banking, you can do it and move on.
Do you think the cashless policy will make FAAN to actually know how much it generate annually? Defi nitely, it will help things. We know how much we generate and we know how much that comes in but we still know that you can’t eliminate some leakages. But with this now, that one will be taken care of because you can go to a point.
If am not collecting cash for government and am coming to work, I think there is a limit of amount of money I should be carrying on my body. It will curb leakages and improve revenue at the end of the day.
How are the operations at MMIA? It is okay and we are improving. At least, we are pressed too from where we started from with a serious bask lash and all those things have gone down. We are gradually addressing most of the issues. Unfortunately, those buses are not old, it’s just that they don’t have space.
That is the basic problem we have with the buses; maintaining them is not easy but we try as much as possible to keep them rolling. Actually, my target is to have three buses because we have five. We want three buses working at any point in time so that two will be running and one will just be there as a backup so that when we have issue we pick that one. Unfortunately, people’s attitude is not just encouraging. The attitude of people to government property is just very bad and that is the basic thing.
It is like a battle but we are winning it. When we realize that the noise is just too much, we had to move the car hire away from there and nearer here.
What about sensitisation? We have jingles in diff erent Nigerian languages and banners too. The sensitization is still ongoing. There are the banners, they sent 16 to us from the headquarters.
We will put them in strategic positions so that even when a customer is sitting with you, he or she is reading that they are not supposed to pay cash. We are having meetings with all the stakeholders and the secretary is coming to see the readiness of the agencies.
The turnaround time for the bus sometimes takes too long. What are you doing about it? It is because it is only one working. If we have two, in ten fi fteen minutes they would return but when you have one working that is the problem. But we tried something and it is working. We had one converted from electronics to manual. You know they are all nozzle operated with diesel and diesel in this country is something else.
The compartments are very sensitive; so they keep on getting destroyed. Then we said if we can convert them to manual like every other vehicle so that we can manage it. We have done one and we are test running it. It has been on the road. By the time we are okay with that, we start with the other ones.
