THE Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has suspended its taxi operations within the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA).
This comes after The ICIR reported that since the introduction of FAAN’s e-hailing service, FAANTAXI, travellers in and out of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been confronted with terrible transport experiences while commercial drivers battle rougher business conditions.
The FAAN Deputy General Manager (DGM), Public Affairs, Ijeoma Nwosu-Igbo confirmed the suspension during a conversation with The ICIR on Saturday, October 28, saying the suspension was a result of several unresolved issues.
“There was a need to suspend their activities to sort out some issues because the airport environment is an orderly environment. We can’t allow the car hire people to cause confusion there
“They are internal issues, contractual issues; there are things that need to be sorted out, I can’t speak further than that, but we had reasons to close down that place because they were becoming too rowdy. You raised a lot of issues in the media, and there was a lot of wrangling. FAAN wants to straighten out those issues you people raised before the platform begins to function again,” she said.
FAANTAXI was first introduced at the Abuja airport in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with the intention of extending it to other international airports in Nigeria to improve the safety, security and comfort of travellers.
However, over a year after its introduction, there is no functioning online application for passengers to connect with drivers.
To book a ride via the platform, customers have to approach designated FAANTAXI desks at the airport to be manually paired with drivers, a process that contradicts the promise of seamless facilitation and has been described by both drivers and passengers as cumbersome.
Drivers also complained of excessive charges and glitches with the app, among other challenges.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.