Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has expressed concern over the enormous debt profile of the aviation sector, saying his administration will act quickly to remedy the situation.
President Buhari also directed the Ministry of Aviation to speed up all processes and projects relating to the safety and security of Nigeria’s air transport system.
The President gave the order after a brief by the Federal Ministry of Aviation led by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs Binta Bello.
In a statement by a spokesman for the President, Femi Adesina, President Buhari stressed that the Federal Government had to do something quickly about the debt profile of the aviation sector, as the development had direct impact on safety, security and international respectability.
“Our airports are the windows through which people see our country. Anybody coming into the country will likely come through the airports.
“If we cannot secure and maintain our infrastructure, it will reflect very badly on us,” President Buhari said.
He further directed that counterpart funding for the upgrading of the international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu, should be captured in the 2016 budget.
Mrs Bello told the President that the five new International Airport Terminal Buildings were designed to meet the best international standards.
The five international terminals, she said, could cater for 62 million passengers annually when completed in the first quarter of 2016, with Lagos moving from seven million passengers’ capacity to 25 million, Abuja moving from five million to 16 million, while Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu, would have the capacity for seven million passengers each.
