No going back on airports’ concession, says FG

a collage of Nigerian airports

The Federal Government says the planned concession of major airports
across the country will go on as planned.

This is just as the government announced that a N45bn severance package would
 be given to ex-workers of the defunct Nigerian Airways.

The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, stated this while fielding
questions from State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive
Council meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.

He was reacting to the protests by members of the Air Transport
 Service Senior Staff Association and the National Union of Air Transport
Employees who kicked against the planned concession.

Sirika said the government could no longer sustain the funding of the 22
 airports across the country and thus had to enter into concessions.

The minister said the Murtala Muhammed International Airport for instance
 was originally built to handle 200,000 travellers per annum but today it is
 serving eight million per annum, stressing that the government did not have
 the resources to upgrade the facilities to handle the increasing number of
travellers.

While acknowledging the rights of the workers to protest, Sirika said the
government would try its best to ensure that jobs were not lost.

He said, “At the time the concession of some government assets started,

 we were not knowledgeable in what concession entails but today we have the
 knowledge and it will be transparently done with active participation of
workers in both the delivery and the steering committees to drive this process.”

Sirika added that a portal would be set up by the Infrastructure
Concession Regulatory Commission where all matters of concession would
 be available to ensure transparency.

He added, “I have to say that we have been meeting with them but the
 policy of the government is that we cannot fund aviation infrastructure today
 through public budgets. The money is not there. We intend to get the private
 sector to come and put in their money.

“The policy has been done that it will go through concession, to give to some
individuals
 who will build, operate, maintain, sustain, make money and the government 
will also make money in the process and the airports will be returned to the go
vernment after a number of years between 20 to 25 years. This will be
 transparently done; this is the catch phrase, so we are proceeding.”

He revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the concessions
since 2015 but things were being put in place to ensure that it was a success.