FAAN applies strategy to tackle over N3 trillion airport infrastructure deficit

The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Olubunmi Kuku said the agency is taking a bigger, bolder approach to fixing decrepit infrastructure at the country’s airports that had been left for so long.

She noted that the infrastructure gaps at airports that stakeholders put at more than N3 trillion won’t change overnight.

Kuku who spoke at the Business Breakfast Meeting put together by the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI) in Lagos with the topic, “Cape Town Convention Practice Direction”, disclosed that since FAAN could not undertake the repairs of all the aerodromes, it is primarily concerned was to make the airports and terminals specifically habitable for the users while they work on this upgrade.

She said, “You heard somebody say we have about 91 airstrips and 31 airports. Imagine what South Africa is doing today. I believe investment in the Thabo Mbeki airport is over $1 billion just this year. We cannot afford to do that, so we need to look at our high-priority airports – Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt on the domestic side.”

“On the international side, Lagos, Abuja and Kano are a priority. After that, we focused and looked at our secondary airports. Let us make sure they are safe and habitable. What is required to turn them around is probably a lot more minimal than the rest. We then take our larger airports and we focus on making them a hub.”

The FAAM boss explained that what the agency is doing is not just building infrastructure and making additional investments but one that would yield the right returns and give comfort to the international community because of the status of aviation as global, stressing “There is nothing like Nigeria standard.”

Giving an account of what the President Bola Tinubu administration has done in the aviation industry in the past 11 months is largely to focus on key areas where they can make some quick wins in terms of improving the environment for airline operators, the airlines, the pilots who are flying through the airports.

“Over the last few months, we have been working aggressively on improving the state of the runways. We had opened that earlier. We have some issues with Taxiway A and Taxiway B. We have started to work on those. In Abuja, there were some challenges around some of the runways as well as the pavements which we have started to work on.”

She assured that before December, all of the runway markings across all of the airports should have been completed.

Meanwhile, President of Aviation Round Table (ART) Air Commodore Ademola Onitiju (Rtd) in his address at the summit viewed the activation of the Cape Town Practice Direction policy by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria – Justice  John Tsoho as commendable, just as he lauded the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo’s effort that birthed the realisation of the aircraft lease agreement document.

The Cape Town Convention was to assure the ease of recovery of high-value aviation assets and allay the fears of repossession challenges often faced by aircraft owners and lessors when the lessee defaults.

He said, “As of date, it is in force in 87 contracting parties. The Federal Republic of Nigeria subsequently, in the year 2007, lodged her Declarations and reservations to the convention’s protocol and application as her local conditions permit. This is a normal treaty ratification procedure in international law. However, the experience of lessors seeking to enforce its provision has not been pleasant in Nigeria.”

“Consequently, the activation of the Practice Directions initiated by  Minister Keyamo catapulted Nigeria into the enviable group of nations where lenders and investors are assured of a judicial system that eases the recovery of their assets and prompt resolution of related disputes”.

Wole Shadare