Uche Usim, Abuja
In what may be described as a boost towards achieving the airport modernization goal, the Minister of Aviation Mr Hadi Sirika on Tuesday 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).
Receiving the certificates of compliance from the Director-General of the Commission Mr Chidi Izuwah in his office, Sirika said the next stop for the airport concession train would be at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to secure the approval for the full business of concession to proceed.
He said the project, when completed, would see massive private sector fund injection into the airports, that will in turn create 241,700 jobs.
He said: “The concession will turn the airport terminals to their full potential in private hands as millions of dollars would be pumped into the airports”, he explained.
The Minister described the planned airport concession project as an integral part of the Aviation Sector Roadmap, which was approved by President Muhammadu Buhari and already being implemented.
He commended the ICRC, which through its mandate, has guided the Ministry on the concession journey 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.
He explained that some times, it is the entire value chain of aviation business that needs to be considered, which is wide and large.
In his remarks, the Director-General of ICRC Mr 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 added that the airports in Nigeria have great potential 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 achievements recorded so far, and wished for greater success as the project enters the procurement stage.