The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mrs Olubunmi Kuku, has expressed concern over the alleged ill-treatment of passengers by e-hailing operators offering shuttle and car-hire services at airports.

Kuku said FAAN could not fold its arms while complaints about passenger safety, security, fares, and other issues remained unresolved.

She said although passengers were free to choose their preferred e-hailing or car-hire operator, the authority remained concerned about the quality of their experience, safety, liability, and operators’ responsibility for their drivers.

Kuku spoke in an interview in Lagos while clarifying issues surrounding the exit of Uber, one of the major players in Nigeria’s e-hailing industry.

She said Uber’s decision to discontinue its services in Nigeria was based on its own economic and regulatory considerations, stressing that the development had nothing to do with FAAN.

According to her, FAAN received several complaints, particularly during the December holiday period, from passengers who used e-hailing and car-hire services at airports.

“Some of them went all the way from intimidation, to being dropped in other places, and even more extreme situations,” she said.

Kuku also disclosed that FAAN had encountered situations where drivers associated with e-hailing platforms would leave their vehicles and join car-hire operators at airports, allegedly to charge passengers higher fares.

She said the complaints prompted FAAN to introduce regulatory oversight for car-hire services at airports.

“The app that was developed was strictly to focus on the fact that you have visibility on who the car-hire companies are, you know who the driver that is taking you from Point A to Point B is,” she said.

Kuku clarified that FAAN did not collect fares on behalf of car-hire drivers, who were not employees of the authority.

She said FAAN’s role was to provide passengers with information on the operators and indicative fares based on their destinations.

The FAAN boss added that car-hire services generally charged higher fares because their business model involved transporting passengers to the airport and returning to the airport.

She stressed that passengers retained the right to choose between pre-booked cars, e-hailing services and car-hire operators.

On its dealings with e-hailing companies, Kuku said liability remained a major area of disagreement.

She said the companies had requested dedicated pick-up zones at airports, which FAAN agreed to provide, but the authority also wanted the operators to accept responsibility for their drivers.

“Those drivers are not the drivers of Uber; rather, they’re independent drivers,” she quoted the companies as saying.

Kuku said FAAN was dissatisfied with the position, particularly as the companies directed passengers to use safety features on their platforms rather than accepting responsibility for safety concerns involving the drivers.

She maintained that Uber had been considering exiting Nigeria for some time, adding that the disagreement over liability was one of the issues that created a stumbling block between the company and FAAN.

“I’m sure that they had their own reasoning, and I know that they had been considering exiting Nigeria for a while,” she said.

Kuku stressed that Uber’s exit was not connected to FAAN, noting that airports constituted only a small part of the company’s operations in Nigeria.