Airport Concessioning: Foreign Airlines Demand Transparency

By Uche Mbah

The Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria has said concession of Airports in Nigeria must follow due process, and be seen to be transparent.

The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission is concessioning four Airports – Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Mallam Aminu Kanu International Airport, Kano; and the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers.

This is being done under the supervision of the Ministry of Aviation, which engaged the services of transaction advisers.

At a press briefing in Lagos Thursday, the President of AFARN, Kingsley Nwokoma, said the group supports the concession, but warned that the International Airlines have their eyes on the process and the investment community in the Aviation sector.

“The news, however, is that a lot of comments from various quarters have continued to trail the four major airports penciled down for concession since the plan was hatched and made public by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, almost three years ago”, he said.

“The world is watching the process and AFARN calls upon the Minister to live up to the (promise) he made at the outset of this process.

“Much as I share this opinion, our position is that things should be done right and transparently too, to avoid crippling the industry that has provided thousands of Nigerians with employments. We cannot afford to gamble this time with the Aviation industry, considering the state of the economy and its global outlook too,” he noted.

According to him, it is worrisome when notable lawyers like Femi Falana is having misgivings about the concession.

He said that the liquidation

of the defunct Nigeria Airways was done in a hurry, and the Government must learn from the mistakes.

“Since that time, well-meaning Nigerians and various stakeholders have spoken. The latest one coming from Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, whose law firm had also advised that there might be legal battles if things are not done right based on what the law says.

“He (Falana) went further and urged the Federal Government to disqualify Messrs. TAV Consortium and GMR Consortium owned by ADP that holds 46 per cent share in GMR and 49 per cent in TAV respectively, having expressed desire and submitted applications for the airports in question…

“Two consortiums owned by ADP, Airport de Paris, submitted expressions of interest. They also own 49 per cent in TAV consortium that also expressed interest in this process and GMR Airport Limited. ADP owns 46 per cent.”