As the Nigeria Aviation industry begins to warm up towards one of the most iconic events of the industry, the prestigious Nigeria Aviation Award and the Ministerial gala on the 14th December 2019 at Oriental hotel Victoria Island, the industry is set to witness another milestone in airport landscape improvement by the recent agreement between Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and FCI International Ltd (the initiator of NIGAV award) to set up a permanent befitting centre for development and international trade promotion within the corridor of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport called the Nigeria Aviation (NIGAV) Conference and Exhibition Centre.
This follows the approval of Capt. Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu, the Managing Director of FAAN on a land lease agreement which was conveyed by the Company Secretary/Legal adviser (Head of the Directorate of Legal Services) to FAAN Mr Clifford Imade Omozeghian to Fortune Idu the Managing Director of FCI International Nigeria/Chairman of NIGAV. The 2500sqm centre is to project the best of Nigeria’s businesses and enterprises and stand as a centre of industry promotion excellence.
The centre which will take off early next year is planned through three development stages as envisioned by Mr Idu. The first stage is to develop a 1000 sitter capacity hall that can hold 100 exhibition booths where all kinds of industry activities including open-to-public ceremonies can be held.
Then the second stage is to expand by building meeting rooms, cafeteria for workshop and business hub meetings and the 3rd stage will be a multistory facility with aerial hall, underground parking, meeting rooms, recreation and learning facilities.
Centres of such at the international airport axis’s are often considered as investor’s gateway and the foresight to sign this project by the Managing Director of FAAN is inline with the President Buhari’s administration’s mandate of increasing indigenous capacity in creating wealth by opening a platform within the airport corridors where the numerous indigenous produce can be showcased for export market using the air cargo services. This also reflects on various good gestures of the administration towards the development of the aviation industry.
The industry definitely needs the centre that can project development and serve as meeting point for not just Nigeria but Africa in general. Exhibition and conference is a uniting force and it will bring people from all over the world to Nigeria. This of course means greater air traffic flow to Nigeria and with direct impact on the aviation economy and the Nigeria economy too.
The NIGAV centre is a win-win for the air transport industry and Nigeria. It is planned to start hosting events from February 2020 such as the Airport Business Summit and Expo, OPITeX for the oil and gas pipeline expo, NIMPORT, Agro Air Logistics Conference, WedExpo and hopefully the next Nigeria award will be held at the centre in 2020.
