Emirates Airlines hits Nigerian drug cartels with credit card policy

The airline, meanwhile, has started the refund of fares to passengers affected by the policy, which took effect September 22, 2016.


The airline, recently, had left some Nigerian passengers behind on the ground that they bought Lagos-Dubai-Rio tickets in naira, rather than via credit card.

The action, which violates Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive and Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and other countries, as contained in Article 8 (4), has been described as a subtle rejection of the naira.

Emirates' officials, however, said despite their challenges with repatriation of funds, the policy was not a rejection of the local currency.

A source at the meeting, told The Guardian NCAA officials accepted the reason - drug trafficking and efforts to curtail it - as genuine.

The source said: "The airline noted that drug trafficking is becoming rampant on that route. Emirates discovered there have been series of airplane diversions on the route. This is on account of airborne passengers feeling sick and the aircraft having to divert, to save their lives.

"The sick passengers often turn out to be drug traffickers, made sick by the substances they were trafficking. And this is always happening to Nigerians. To detect the culprit, the airlines' headquarters in Dubai had introduced credit card as mode of payment, to know who is who through electronic data. That helps Emirates know who is eligible to go to Brazil and those that should not be given a chance. It is their strategy to curb drug traffickers, not an attempt to reject the naira."