SIRIKA RECEIVES IN AUDIENCE ATACA EXCO. …..Says Airports concession will be completed in second quarter, as requests for proposal on national carrier establishment out Monday

Oru Leonard

Minister of Aviation Senator Hadi Sirika on Tuesday played host to the Executive Committee members of the Abuja Transport and Aviation Correspondents Association (ATACA), in his office.

Speaking, Senator Sirika disclosed that the process for the concession of Nigeria’s four major international airports namely Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano will be completed in the second quarter of this year.

Sirika who also announced that the requests for proposal on the establishment of a national carrier would be out on Monday said, “The transaction advisers for the concession have finished the Outline Business Case and had got the Request for Qualification. We’ve pre-qualified the people and they’ve been issued Request for Proposal.

“They’ve turned the proposals in and we are analysing them to announce the successful bidders and this will be soon. Our timetable is for the first quarter of this year.

“Well, I can see that it is still happening, let’s be very ambitious, but certainly it will end in second quarter and all the (identified) airports will be concessioned.”

The minister further noted that many airports have been established since the current administration took over government in 2015.

“There are more airports today than when we came in 2015. There’s Anambra and Lafia airports; there is Ekiti airport, going on; Makurdi airport, going on; Yobe airport, Ebonyi airport and many other airports.

“We have about 12 new airports added since we came and this is growth. And we have the same in other aspects of the sectors, as more runways are being added, more capacities for the airports are being delivered.

Sirika expressed that the government was diligently implementing the key components of the aviation sector roadmap, adding that the project will be achieved before the end of the term of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The minister also revealed plans to begin the issuing of requests for proposal to intending investors for the establishment of the national carrier on March 8, 2022.

He said, “The transitional adviser is going to request for proposal next week Monday. Government will own five per cent, Nigerians will own 46 per cent and the international partners airlines will take 49 per cent shares.

“We will give them some weeks to respond to the request, then we will announce the winning bidder. However, in the interim, because government intends to own only five per cent of the airline shares, we are going to go ahead with the AOC (Air Operator Certificate) which has commenced since.”

Sirika added, “I believe that by April, we should be able to have our AOC ready, which means, we are ready to start. And once the AOC is in our hands, the offices are secured, the interim board is being constituted, and when they finish signing the contract, we will announce who they are.

“Currently, they are called interim because they will hold the airline on an interim bases up to the time the investors will come and take over.”

Sirika said the interim board members “are noble people, some are Nigerians, some are not. I think they are about nine of them to run the airline and they will begin operations between now and July.”

He said that within the period, Nigeria Air would run Lagos and Abuja, “and as the situation demands, they may extend to Port Harcourt and other parts of the country.”

Highlight of the visit was the presentation of ATACA Magazine by the the Chairman Comrade Chris Agabi who led the delegation.