Fake greeters are a named problem. Use the airport dispatch desk or a car your hotel sent, and make whoever meets you prove who they are.
Make your driver prove it
- The FCDO's wording is blunt: criminals posing as greeters are a problem at Nigeria's international airports. If you are expecting someone, make them properly identify themselves before you set off.
- A sign with your name on it is not identification. Ask for the booking reference, the company name or the vehicle registration you were sent, and check it against your own booking rather than against what they tell you.
- The FCDO also says taxis, including app services, can pose a kidnap risk, and that most major hotels hire out cars with drivers. Where a hotel car is an option, it is the option the FCDO points at.
The airport rank
- FAAN runs its own car hire rank and dispatch system at its airports, which links a pick-up to a registered operator, a named driver and a specific vehicle, and keeps a record of the assignment.
- You do not need an app to use it. FAAN's own FAQ says passengers can be served through an authorised service or dispatch desk, which is the point for someone who has just landed with no local data.
- The fare shown is an estimate and you can agree the final number with the driver. Rates take account of the driver returning to the airport empty, so an airport fare is not a city fare.
- Uber and Bolt still work off airport. FAAN's rules cover commercial pick-ups inside its own airports, not the rest of the city.
Lagos, specifically
- The international and domestic terminals at Murtala Muhammed are about one kilometre apart and share the runways. A connection onto a domestic flight is a road transfer, not a walk.
- The international terminal is the one commissioned on 22 March 2022, built for 14 million passengers a year, and all airlines were moved into it by October 2023. Older accounts of the terminal describe a building that is no longer in use.
Traffic
- Lagos traffic can be very slow. Allow far more time than the distance suggests, take water with you, and treat an early flight as a night-before problem.
Comments
No comments yet. Share the first one.
Share a tip
Sign in to continue.