By Adelola Amihere
The move by the Federal Government to concession four of its international airports, yesterday, received a boost as the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika received the Outline Business Case Certificate of Compliance for the concession of Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano International Airports from the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).
In a statement signed by the Director, Public Affairs Ministry of Aviation, James Odaudu, the Minister while receiving the certificates of compliance from the Director General of the Commission, Engr. Chidi Izuwah in his office said “with these certificates of compliance we will go-ahead to the Federal Executive Council for approval for the full business of concession to proceed and that will turn the airport terminals to its full potential in private hands as millions of dollars would be pumped into the airports”
He recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had earlier approved the Aviation Sector Roadmap which the Ministry has been following and operating diligently and part of which was airport terminal concession.
Sirika commended the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission which through its the mandate, has guided the ministry throughout to ensure compliance and value for money, transparency, equity, and fairness.
He also expressed satisfaction with the quality of work done by the Transaction Advisers that culminated into the release of the certificates by the ICRC.
The Minister noted that with the full implementation of airport terminal concession about 241,700 jobs will be created. He explained that some time is the entire value chain that of aviation business that needs to be considered which is wide and large.
In his remarks, the Director-General of ICRC Engr. Chidi Izuwah said the Federal Government through the Ministry of Aviation has adopted Public-Private Partnership PPP as the strategy to leverage on private sector participation and investment in order to achieve the upgrade and development of new terminal infrastructure at the four airports in a cost-effective and value -for- money manner.
He said the airports in Nigeria have great potentials but were currently operating at sub-optimal level due factors that will have to be improved under the PPP programme.
According to Izuwah, airport terminal concession was one of the critical projects under the aviation sector roadmap of the FG and fits well within the scope of the Ministry’s strategic plan for the sector .
He congratulated the Minister, Ministry staff and the Transaction Advisers on the achiements recorded so far, and wished for greater success as the project enters the procurement stage.
