The Ministry of Aviation is planning to build a new international airport in Abuja and to remodel seven others across Nigeria. The permanent secretary of the ministry, Ann Ettah, said this yesterday in
Abuja while assessing the performance of the ministry before the senate committee on Aviation. The permanent secretary who represented the minister at the meeting said the current international airport in Abuja will be used as the local wing while the current local wing will serve as the cargo terminal.
The airports to be remodelled are: Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Akanu Ibiam Airport in Enugu, Port Harcourt international Airport, and Calabar airport.
According to Mrs Ettah, the designs of the new faces of the airports have been concluded and construction will begin soon. However, she did not state the cost implications of the project. 2010 budget performance
According to the ministry’s official, the ministry got a total allocation of N45 billion in the 2010 budget but so far, only N27.9 billion has been released to the ministry. Mrs Ettah, however, gave the ministry, including its five agencies, a pass mark of 61.0% average budget performance.
According to Mrs Ettah, some of the projects the ministry and its agencies executed include: The installation of ten 3D Rapiscan full body scanners at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport II Lagos, Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja; Port Harcourt; and Kano Airports as well as 22 walk-through metal detectors and 14 baggage scanning machines installed at various airports including the Presidential wings.
Frank Aisegbogun, managing Director of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), a subsidiary of the ministry, noted that the agency has procured 2,500KVA generators to replace the existing ones at the international airports in Lagos and Abuja airports in a bid to improve power generation at the airports.
He said that there are 22 airports managed by his agency but lamented that only two of them were economically viable while the rest are in poor state and funded by the revenue generated from the two functional airports.
“When I look at the balance sheet, perhaps, only two airports can sustain themselves,” Mr Aisegbogun said.
“We have to re-inject funds into the airports or else, they will die over time.”
BASA fund intact
Officials of the ministry also disclosed that the $76 million Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) fund meant for provision of infrastructure at the nation’s airports is still in the safe of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Mrs Etta, and Harold Demuren, Director-General of Nigerian Airport who are signatories to the account said they have never withdrawn money from it.
Mr Demuren said that none of the airline operators have so far expressed interest in accessing the fund.
“We have $76 million in that account with Central Bank of Nigeria and nobody has touched it, the money is intact.”