The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority has announced that commuters who pay cash fares on regulated bus services in the state will face enforcement measures from August 1, 2026.
LAMATA said the measure forms part of its efforts to achieve full compliance with the cashless fare payment system, promote accountability, prevent revenue leakages and improve transparency across Lagos’ regulated public transportation network.
The authority had previously focused enforcement on drivers, conductors and other transport employees found collecting cash from passengers but said the action would now be extended to commuters who knowingly offer cash payments.
LAMATA discussed the new enforcement framework during an X Space held on Tuesday, July 28, with public transport operators, payment service providers and urban mobility stakeholders.
The session was titled, “Lagos Cashless Transit: What August 1 Enforcement Means for You.”
LAMATA also urged commuters to report any driver, conductor or boarding officer who requests cash through its official email address and customer service telephone lines.
The agency’s Head of Legal Department, Idris Akinola, said the laws and regulations governing regulated public transportation in Lagos required passengers to use the approved electronic fare payment system.
He identified the Cowry Card as the approved payment method and maintained that both the passenger offering an unauthorised cash payment and the transport employee accepting it could be held responsible.
“This means both the person offering cash and the person accepting it may be held liable under the applicable laws,” Akinola said.
According to him, unauthorised cash transactions within the regulated transport system could be treated as offences because they bypass the approved revenue collection process.
Akinola said both parties, upon conviction under the applicable laws, could face penalties extending to seven years’ imprisonment.
The specific statutory provision supporting the possible seven-year sentence was, however, not identified in the public account of the discussion. The claim should therefore be understood as the position expressed by LAMATA’s legal department rather than a judicial determination on the punishment applicable to every cash-fare transaction.
The legal officer advised transport companies to conduct proper background checks before recruiting drivers, conductors and boarding officers.
He also urged operators to carry out unannounced internal inspections to ensure their employees were not secretly collecting cash from passengers.
Akinola said transport operators must cooperate with LAMATA officials conducting random enforcement checks on buses and other regulated facilities.
Managing Director of Teejay Motors, Adekunle Tajudeen, said the company had organised meetings and training sessions for its drivers and boarding officers ahead of the August 1 commencement date.
“We have instructed our staff not to accept cash under any circumstances and have emphasised that passengers must use a Cowry Card,” Tajudeen said.
He disclosed that some drivers employed by the company had previously been arrested and jailed for collecting cash from passengers.
Tajudeen argued that penalising drivers alone had failed to eliminate the practice because some passengers continued to offer cash, particularly where they did not have sufficiently funded Cowry Cards.
He said the extension of enforcement to commuters was intended to discourage passengers from encouraging drivers and conductors to circumvent the approved payment system.
According to him, Teejay Motors had recruited additional drivers and expanded its fleet to ensure that the suspension or dismissal of non-compliant personnel would not leave passengers stranded.
Public transport and urban mobility expert Adepoju Fawokan said every cash transaction involved both a person offering the money and another person accepting it.
He explained that LAMATA believed holding both parties accountable would be more effective than targeting only transport workers.
Fawokan said the purpose of the policy was not principally to punish passengers but to prevent revenue leakages and protect the financial sustainability of regulated bus services.
LAMATA had earlier explained that revenue lost through unauthorised cash collections affected the ability of transport operators to purchase spare parts, maintain buses, return broken-down vehicles to service and pay their employees.
The authority maintained that protecting fare revenue would enable operators to recover their operating costs and provide safer, more dependable services to passengers.
Managing Director of Touch and Pay Technologies, Olamide Afolabi, also addressed complaints from passengers who alleged that some agents entered incorrect amounts while loading money onto their Cowry Cards.
Afolabi said technological improvements had been introduced to allow commuters to view their card balances and recent top-up transactions through the Cowry mobile application, making it easier to identify and report disputed transactions.
Touch and Pay Technologies operates the electronic payment infrastructure supporting the Cowry Card and mobile payment system used across Lagos’ regulated transport network.
LAMATA advised passengers to obtain Cowry Cards from designated bus terminals and stations on the Lagos Blue and Red rail lines and ensure the cards were sufficiently funded before beginning their journeys.
The authority reiterated that cash collection on regulated buses undermined the integrity of the electronic fare system, deprived operators of legitimate revenue and threatened the sustainability of public transportation services.
It urged commuters and transport workers to comply with the cashless policy from August 1 and report anyone attempting to demand or make unauthorised cash payments.