The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has cleared Bolt to resume e-hailing services at its airports, ending a period of disruption for passengers who had come to rely on the platform for airport pickups. The clearance follows weeks of engagement between the authority and the company aimed at settling disputes over how ride-hailing vehicles operate within airport grounds.
FAAN's Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Henry Agbebire, said the disagreement centred on the Authority's push for greater visibility over commercial vehicles operating at its airports, rather than any objection to e-hailing itself. He pointed to long-running concerns about unregulated pickups, passenger touting and accountability gaps whenever an airport-related incident occurred.
ACHRAMS Is Not a Competitor, FAAN Says
Agbebire said FAAN's Airport Car Hire Rank Management System (ACHRAMS) was introduced purely as a queue-management and transport-oversight tool, not as a rival product to Bolt or Uber. He said fares that drew public criticism during the standoff were not newly imposed by the Authority, and that ACHRAMS only added visibility to airport taxi rates that had existed independently of the system.
The Authority acknowledged that the temporary suspension of e-hailing access caused real inconvenience and higher transport costs for passengers, and apologised for the disruption. Agbebire said FAAN's actions were driven by safety and security considerations rather than commercial interest, and that discussions with other e-hailing operators are ongoing with a resolution expected soon.
What Changes for Passengers
With the agreement in place, passengers arriving at FAAN-managed airports can again book Bolt rides directly, alongside the conventional airport taxi ranks now managed under ACHRAMS. FAAN says the framework is intended to let e-hailing platforms keep operating at airports while giving the Authority the identification and accountability it says is necessary in a security-sensitive environment.