Airport Tollgates: FG Loses N10bn To VIPs- Minister

Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has lamented the loss of N10 billion to VIPs as toll charges in the nation’s airports.

The Minister made this known on Tuesday after the Federal Executive Council Meeting, FEC, promising to end the trend.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently directed government officials and other VIPs to pay toll at the airports. The President’s directive, according to Ajuri Ngelale, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity did not exclude the president and the vice president.

Speaking yesterday after the two-day FEC presided over by President Tinubu, Keyamo said it’s only in the Aviation sector that VIPs don’t pay for services rendered to them.

According to him,  over 80 percent of what is supposed to be collected at the toll gates in the nation’s  airport, totaling has been lost to the VIPs.

“That is how bad it is. 18 per cent and 82 per cent of these e-tags are given out free of charge to VIPs,” the minister stated, stating the trend would no longer be allowed under his watch.

He explained that out of the N260 million that is supposed to accrue to the federal government from airports toll only N100 million is realized.

Keyamo said: “Let me give you the shocking statistics. The negative figure that we get at the end of the day from the complimentary e-tags is 82 per cent, in the negative.

“In other words, where we are supposed to have a 100 per cent contract on the e-costs from these e-tags that we print, it is only 18 per cent that we now end up selling. That is how bad it is. 18 per cent and 82 per cent of these e-tags are given out free of charge to VIPs. So, imagine the loss in my sector, and I ask myself,’Which other sector will I go to that they give me anything free?’

“Is it because I’m a VIP that you say that in FCT, I should not pay land charges that you waive it for me? I pay for that sector. I pay for power. Yes, I pay for everything. So, why would anybody now come to my own sector and want to get free passage? Not possible. That is how bad it is.

“So this has led in the past to loss of billions of naira, not millions, annually. Yet, our airport infrastructure, you know, is decaying. I am helpless. I’m looking for concessionaires. I’m looking for help with decaying infrastructure.

“They will be the first to cry out, these same VIPs – ‘why are the toilets like this? Why are your toilets smelling? Why can’t you do this?’ They are the same people, but they don’t pay for the services. So, if we want improved infrastructure at the airport, we must pay for services.

“I’ll give you another example. In one of the access gates, based on the count of the barrier going up and down, we are supposed to be making N250m or 260 million from that gate every month. That gate, because of exemptions, the return to us is less than N100 million every month,” the minister said.