Kaduna Airport: Passengers lament lack of banking facilities
As economic activities pick up at the Kaduna International Airport, air travelers are groaning from lack of banking facilities in and around the airport, describing it as an anomaly.
The situation at the airport became unbearable for angry passengers that came in from different destinations to catch their flights following the closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja as they could not have access to Automated Teller Machines (ATM).
Nonetheless and despite the obvious need for banks and ATMs, security is top-notch, especially in and around the airport following commencement of international flights into the airport. The passengers, however, were looking lost as regards how to access cash for their needs, especially as the country has been talking of going cashless for almost 10 years.
To worsen this matter, airlines at the airport do not have Point of Sale (POS) systems for people to buy tickets with. One airline even decided to hike its price exponentially because passengers were to pay cash, claiming to have closed their counters.
The fact that there are no banks operating from that airport does not make it any easier, according to a passenger that identified himself as Steven, who just landed and needed to access cash for various activities but found, to his dismay that he could not.
Steven told our reporter,“I have turned to a mendicant for money as I have no choice, how did I get my ticket? I transferred to someone who had cash and she paid me cash. But what if I had no such facility? Government should do something about this.
It is not just about diverting flights to this place.” “If I did not get this money from that lady, I would have died of hunger, especially if I transferred and she did not see an alert immediately only for me to go and be told my money had been debited. Even getting food, is another issue. The place may be looking fine but it isn’t ready to take the influx at once.”
”If we are to run this airport as an international airport, safety is good but the convenience to transact business is key as nothing can move fluidly without that and things like not having POS or using bank ATMs will only give some airline staff the opportunity to pilfer their company money and run them aground or worse,” he said.
Another respondent explained that Nigerians are not planners, they are instant travellers and sometimes buy tickets few minutes before flying, stating that the fact there is no place where they can access cash from at the airport makes it difficult for them to fly.
He therefore called on government to rectify this. In a bid by this reporter to get a ticket back, he discovered to his dismay that there wasn’t anywhere to get money; the nearest bank was in town.
In fact, the nearest vending machine was in town and the airline on ground as at Thursday evening had no POS and was insisting on cash.
Similarly, a Lagos-bound passenger stranded in Kaduna for his inability to purchase tickets with his credit card as a result of unavailability of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and POS by airlines, who simply gave his name as Wole told The Daily Times, that government ought to have finished the airport before allowing passengers to make use of it.
“You can see that I am stranded, I can’t have access to any pay point, no ATM, POS or even a single bank here at the airport. I am disappointed; the only thing ready here is the security. Why the rush in moving flights to Kaduna from Abuja?”
It was gathered that airline officials at the airport were frustrating passengers by collecting cash without making provisions for POS, where credit cards can be used.
The Daily Times also gathered that government was losing huge amount of revenue in area of charges as foreign airlines declined flying into Kaduna International Airport after spending billions of naira to install navigational aids and rehabilitate the terminal building.
The only international flight that has landed at the airport so far is Ethiopian Airline. Maximum security has however been provided within and around the Kaduna International Airport as stern looking policemen have been drafted to strategic points from the airport to Rigasa, the rail station and the Kaduna-Abuja highway with safer highway security team on ground.
Mobile policemen, members of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and men of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) have been deployed while ambulances were also positioned at strategic locations between Kaduna and the Abuja highway. Men of the Civil Defense Corps and the Anti-terrorism squad are also positioned to accompany train to and from Kaduna in all its trips.
Free buses to convey passengers to and from airport, train stations, Abuja and Kaduna have been provided with security operatives manning each of the buses. Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has assured of maximum protection of air passengers willing to use the facilities provided by government following closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport. Movements within and around the airport were being subjected to scrutiny while airport workers were made to display their identity cards.
Although government has been able to tackle the issue of security of passengers, installation of security lights were yet to be completed from the gate of the airport to the roundabout. Foreign airlines, except Ethiopian airline, have refused to fly into the Kaduna airport in spite of government appeal and persuasion.
Daily Times investigations revealed that government may sanction foreign airlines that have refused to fly into Kaduna during the closure of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport by declining further review of increase in their frequencies into any airport in country.
Rehabilitation of the Kaduna airport is said to gulp over N5bn but refusal by foreign airlines to fly there will be a colossal loss as the money spent on the installation of navigational aids and other airport infrastructure needed to be recovered in order to continue maintaining the facilities.
