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FG invests $870m in airport upgrade — FAAN

By BusinessNews Staff on October 25, 2013

The Federal Government has invested $870m in airport infrastructure upgrade as part of efforts to improve services in all the nation’s airports.

The Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mr. George Uriesi, made this known on Tuesday while presenting a paper entitled: ‘Airport regulation from the Africa perspective’, at the Airport Council International Conference and Exhibition in Lome, Togo.

A statement made available to our correspondent on Wednesday by the agency stated that Uriesi said Nigeria was one of the six nations in Africa currently infusing funds into infrastructure development and improving the lot of airports in order to make them to be at par with their counterparts worldwide.

As a result of the huge expenditure, the FAAN boss said it might introduce a token developmental charge in order to have a return on the investment once the projects were completed.

According to him, many countries are investing in infrastructure and some do not have the passenger figures to gain return on the investment.

Uriesi said that apart from Egypt and South Africa that had over 30 million passengers annually, only eight other African countries had a total passenger figure of above seven million.

He said that in the context of the 43 African countries, only five had above 10 million passengers; three, seven million; while eight of those countries had between one and two million passengers.

The FAAN boss noted that going by this, the passenger traffic in Africa was not enough to provide the funds for airport development

He further explained that this might have led countries like Tunisia, Mozambique, Togo, Tanzania and Senegal to invest heavily to ensure rapid development of their airports.

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