Uber, Others Not Banned from Airports–FAAN

**Removes Controversial Signage

By Dipo Olowookere

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has denied social media reports that it has banned the services of car hailing companies from its premises.

There have been reports on social media platforms especially on Twitter that the agency has asked the likes of Uber, Taxify (Bolt) and others not to pick up passengers from airports if they don’t want to be heavily fined.

The issue became a hot discuss on Twitter after a picture taken from the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos warned operators of the car hailing services to desist from taking passengers from the premises or be fined N10,000.

“Taxi calls- Bolt, Easyride, Taxify, Uber, Anu Plus, etc are not allowed to pick passengers at the airport. Management,” the notice had said.

But after the agency was heavily criticised, it announced that the notice, which came in form of a signage, was not written and mounted by it.

“The message did not originate from FAAN. Uber and taxify are free to drop passengers at our airports,” the federal agency declared via its Twitter page on Tuesday night.

It later stated that the controversial notice has been removed from the airport and that talks were being held to resolve the issues.

It is a common knowledge that taxi operators at the nation’s airports charge passengers exorbitant fees. But the advent of Uber and others has threatened their operations because their charges are cheaper and services better.

There had been reports in the past of taxi operators having issues with car hailing operators at the airports, accusing the latter of picking their passengers and driving them out of business.