The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari has fast tracked the Airport Concession Programme in an effort to accomodate the aviation sector’s growth spurt. His Excellency divulged this during the commissioning of the new international terminal of the Murtala Muhammed Airport on Tuesday.
In his address, the President noted that the aviation sector is currently experiencing enormous growth, owing to the implementation of the Aviation Roadmap which his government developed in 2016.
According to Mr. President, the commissioning of the newly built terminal is in accordance with the Roadmap, and its presence can only encourage more growth – reason for the concession programme speed up.
“As the approved Aviation Roadmap is being implemented, we begin to experience an unprecedented growth of the sector ; putting pressure on the infrastructure and making business inefficient. If nothing is done, the growth will be stunted and all the opportunities lost. Government is responding with further investments and partnerships in the sector to tend to this challenge. Consequently, the Minister of Aviation has been directed to fast track the Airport Concession Programme”, Buhari stated.
To the same end, one more project being sped up is the construction of the second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport – Abuja, about which the President said, “The Minister of FB&NP has been directed to source special funding for the project, while the MFCT has been directed to conclude the titling of the approved 12,000 hectres of land to accomodate the runway and other developmental projects.”
The newly commissioned MMIA terminal is a state-of-the-art facility with sixty-six (66) check-in counters, eight (08) security screening points, five (05) baggage collection carousels, six (06) passenger boarding bridges with remote boarding and arrival, sixteen (16) and twenty-eight (28) immigration desks at Arrival and Departure respectively and an arrey of other designated spaces. In addition, the terminal has the capacity to process 14 million passengers a year.
Since the goal of the Aviation Roadmap is the establishment of critical infrastructure, the fast tracking of the Airport Concession Programme is a strategic and well calculated move which will ensure the materialization of the Roadmap in record time, if duly implemented.
It is worthy to note that apart from the improvement of airports through concession, other projects included in the Aviation Roadmap are the concretization of a National Carrier and Maintenance, Repairs and Overhaul (MRO) centre, amongst others.
