After months of prevarication the federal government yesterday confirmed that it has approved the concession of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The Vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo made the announcement Monday through a twitter post.
Osinbajo made the confirmation while speaking at the fifth edition of the presidential quarterly business forum held at the State House, Abuja.
“I am pleased to say that the federal executive council (FEC) has approved the concessioning of the Lagos and Abuja airports,” he said.
But industry observers are still confused about whether the concession approval was for the Ministry of Transportation to go ahead and concession the airports or whether government has already given out the airports in concession.
Senior official in the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) said that there has not been any process to concession these airports; rather, what was set up by the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika earlier this year was the Transaction Advisers “who are still doing their groundwork to know the airports could be given out in concession or not.”
The source insisted that there was not process already put in place to concession the airports, so it would be surprising if government announced that it has approved the concession of the two airports.
However, a source from the Ministry of Transportation disclosed that a meeting was held last week Friday by the Minister on how to go about the procedures for cocessioning; so with this approval, government would advertise for tenders from interested companies for a possible transparent concession of these two major airports, which are the major source of revenues for FAAN.
Industry insiders agree that the only way that airport facilities could be modernized, expanded and better service to the passengers realised is the concession of the airports but noted that it must be done transparently.
They believe that the approval is for the kick off of the concession process and workers of the FAAN are of the view that they must be carried along in the process if meaningful concessioning would be realised.
