By Chinelo Obogo
The Board of Directors of Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO), has approved the sum of N4 billion for equipment upgrade, the chairman of the company, Seinde Fadeni, has said.
Speaking during the weekend at a dinner organised for its clients and partners across clearing agents, airlines, the Police, Nigeria Immigration, Customs Service and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) among others, Fadeni said some of the ground support equipment are ageing, and that the equipment for the upgrade would be delivered to the company very soon.
He said that there are numerous challenges limiting the growth of handling business in Nigeria but assured that as a leading handling company in the country, NAHCO would continue to deliver quality and excellent services to its clients.
The Chairman, who engaged with clients and stakeholders at the forum, said that some of the challenges faced by airlines and clearing agents were beyond the company, but assured that NAHCO would collaborate with FAAN and other major stakeholders to address the bottlenecks in the sub-sector.
“We are trying as much as possible to aggressively improve on the equipment, which we have now. Some of our equipment are as old as 20 years and above. We are working hard to ensure that we serve our clients better.
“However, we know that we can’t have it all 100 percent, but we are consistently working to ensure we satisfy our customers. Today is the night of our customers. We know they are kings, and we must treat them as such,” he said.
In his speech, NAHCO’s Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Indranil Gupta, told the gathering that the handling company has performed the foundation stone laying of its export processing centre at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos.
Gupta said construction work would soon start on the structure, which is being conceptualised as a two- storey building, adding that all the facilities at the centre would be automated for seamless transaction.
He said: “On the monument gate, we understand your challenge as clearing agents, but we must also listen to the concerns of FAAN, too. I am sure FAAN doesn’t want to make life difficult for its clients. They know why they locked up the gate, but I can assure you that we will discuss with them soon.”
