President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, August 5, expressed concern over the huge debt profile in the Nigeria’s aviation sector, saying that his administration will act swiftly to amend the situation.
The president spoke after receiving briefing from officials of the Ministry of Aviation led by the permanent secretary, Binta Bello at the presidential villa, Abuja.
He said: “I am concerned about the enormous debt profile in the aviation sector. The Federal Government has to do something quickly because safety, security and international respectability are involved here. 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.”
Buhari then ordered the ministry to hasten up all processes and projects relating to the safety and security of Nigeria’s air transport system.
He further gave directives that, counterpart funding for the upgrading of the international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu, should be included in the 2016 budget.
The permanent secretary informed the president that the five new international airport terminal buildings were designed to meet the best international standards.
According to her, the terminals can cater for about 62 million passengers annually when they are completed in the first quarter of 2016.
She further said, the Lagos terminal, when completed, would be moving from seven million passenger capacity to 25 million, while the Abuja terminal would increase from five million to 16 million.
She added that the Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu terminals, when completed, would have the capacity for seven million passengers each.
About six days ago, it was reported that the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that vanished about 18 months ago, a 2.7m-long piece of debris discovered on Wednesday, July 29, on the island of Réunion seem to finally give answer to one of aviation’s great mysteries.
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