The Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, on Thursday received kudos for his objective appraisal of the industry and acknowledgment of the undisputed pre-eminence of the second terminal of Murtala Muhammed Airport operated by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited.
While reacting to a newspaper report of Chidoka’s appraisal confirming MMA2 as the only Airport terminal with high rating in the country, Bi-Courtney listed the benefits of privatization and commended the Minister for his objective appraisal, his refusal to mislead the country on the true state of the nation’s Aviation industry and the positive steps he has taken to arrest the decay in the sector.
MMA2 is a private sector response to infrastructure decay and deficit in Nigeria under the Public-Private Partnership programme of the Federal Government.
The terminal, on concession to Bi-Courtney on a Build-Operate-Transfer basis, was inaugurated in 2007 for exclusive facilitation of domestic air passengers leaving or arriving Lagos.
Chidoka, who on Tuesday briefed Aviation reporters on his plans to tackle the many problems affecting the crisis ridden sector, cited a recent survey as he affirmed that only the MMA2 is rated highly among all the airport terminals in the country.
According to Bi-Courtney, Chidoka’s comment is consistent with observations of top government functionaries, including the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Tunji Bello, who once stated that there are only two clean establishments in Lagos – the State Secretariat, Alausa and MMA2.
The Minister also noted at the briefing that government was not comfortable with the report that none of the country’s airports ranks among the best 10 in Africa and among the best 20 in the world.
Chidoka declared that plans were already underway to certify the Lagos and Abuja airports to meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation requirements, saying: “It is regrettable that most of our airports are underperforming.
“Our airports are rated poorly by Skytrax.
“We must do a quick turnaround.”
Bi-Courtney in a statement on Thursday, however, urged the Federal Government to buy into the wisdom of restructuring the industry to allow the private sector to lead and thereby attract massive investment.
Pledging to continue to make the nation proud, Bi-Courtney stated: “Across the world, airports are being privatized outright, or given out as concessions to private operators. If Britain can concession Gatwick Airport terminal to a Nigerian, Adebayo Ogunlesi, what more do we have to say? What the industry needs desperately is a thorough liberalization and overhaul of the regulatory agencies to make them more efficient and more professional so as to be able to stamp out corruption.
“The reforms at the seaports, though incomplete, provide a precedent, just as the success of the telecommunications sector liberalisation programme has delivered 110 million telephone lines, created hundreds of thousands of jobs and drawn in millions of dollars in foreign direct investment in 12 years. This demonstrates the enormous power that can be unleashed by leaving critical sectors to private capital.”
Bi-Courtney noted that it had spent over N2billion upgrading its facilities in 2014, adding: “The MMA2 with about 4.5 million/annum passenger capacity and a land area of 20, 000m2, is the first BOT project in the area of infrastructure development in Nigeria that has been completed successfully by a Nigerian company.
“The pre-eminence of MMA2, in the nation’s aviation industry, is hinged on its distinct features with unparalleled state of the art facilities including a terminal building, a multi-storey car park, hotel, conference centre, and an apron. The investments and facilities upgraded in 2013/2014 include: Upgrade of escalators, upgrade of panoramic lift, upgrade of Cupps system, automation of the first MSCP in Lagos, upgrade of generating plants, instalment of e-gates, Baggage Reconciliation System, UPSs, and Baggage Screening Machines.”
The firm noted in its statement that Bi-Courtney had borrowed N38 billion from a consortium of Nigerian banks to make the MMA2 dream a reality in a record time, but it is yet to enjoy the fruit of its labour due to interference and unfavourable policies in the sector.