Tinubu, Shettima, Governors, Others To Start Paying Tollgate Fees At Airports

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved that all Nigerians, including President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, will now pay tollgate fees at all Federal Airports nationwide.

This means that all political office holders, including the Senate President, House of Representatives speaker, governors and others must pay toll fees.

The FEC meeting chaired by Tinubu at the State House on Tuesday approved that all users of Federal airports all over the country must now pay tolls at the gates and that no one is excluded.

The Council supported a series of initiatives set to be launched that will revolutionize Nigeria’s Infrastructure and Housing sector through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).

At the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday, the president approved that no one should be exempted from paying tollgate fees at the airport.

Tinubu, Shettima, Governors, Others To Start Paying Tollgate Fees At Airports

The approval was made following a memorandum presented to the council by the minister of aviation, Festus Keyamo, who argued that the government was losing over 82 percent of the revenue it should have earned from the e-tags that provide access to the tollgates.

He explained that the memoranda had initially prescribed an exemption for only the president and the vice president before Tinubu overruled and directed that both of them should be included among those who must pay.

Keyamo, who disclosed this at the post-FEC media briefing, regretted that Very Important Persons (VIPs) with money who should pay are those who have not been paying, noting that only poor people had been charged for using the tollgates.

The FEC agreed that the initiatives which could unlock about N2 trillion, were aimed at transforming the nation’s infrastructure and housing mortgage sector, meet the urgent demand for critical infrastructure and affordable homeownership, fostering job creation, inclusive growth, and long-term productivity enhancement.

The meeting agreed that inspired by the 1970s era, the government envisions a future where ordinary Nigerians could access 25-year mortgages at low-interest rates to realise their dream of owning a home and by collaborating with private institutional investors, the government seeks to replicate past successes and address current challenges effectively.