Recently, the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation paid an oversight visit to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
The committee which was led by its chairman, Mr. Nnolim Nnaji met with the management of the agency and inspected some ongoing projects and infrastructure at the Murtala Muhammed Airport.
In his speech, the managing director of FAAN, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu highlighted some of the achievements of the agency from 2013 to date.
They include the certification of Murtala Muhammed Airport and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Lagos and Abuja respectively, construction of series of brand new terminals with ultra-modern facilities in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu, Remodelling of FAAN training school and subsequent certification as a training institute, repair of runway and apron at MMIA, Rehabilitation of Runway at Abuja Airport, among several others.
Besides, he enumerated some of the challenges confronting the Authority in her quest towards ensuring that FAAN delivers on her vision of being one of the best airport groups in the world and solicited support of the committee towards finding lasting solutions to these challenges.
Here are the high points of the speeech
FAAN is a service organization statutorily charged to manage all commercial airports in Nigeria and provide service to both passenger and cargo airlines. The Authority is responsible for creating conditions for the development of air transport and service connected with it, in the most economic and efficient manner. FAAN is supervised by the ministry of aviation.
*FAAN, CAP.F5 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, statutorily empowers the organization to:
Develop, provide and maintain at all commercial airports all necessary services and facilities for the safe, orderly, expeditious and economic operation of air transport
Provide adequate conditions under which passengers and goods may be carried by air and under which aircraft may be used for other gainful purposes.
To charge for services provided by the Authority at airports
To provide adequate facilities and personnel for effective safety and security at all airports
Generate and collect revenue for services rendered. This makes up the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Spend monies collected on expenses and projects approved in its yearly IGR budget. The monies derived from the various revenue sources annually are spent on the following: Personnel, overhead and capital cost. In addition to this FAAN is also expected to make remittances to the Federation Account.
*It might interest us to know that most of the airports we inherited their management were built over 3 decades ago. Thus looking back, with growth in passenger traffic and aircraft movements over time, facilities have been over-stretched and aged.
*Consequently, in the last 8 years FAAN through the support of the Federal Government and other stakeholders turned around Nigerian airports for good as can be seen through the massive upgrade, rehabilitation and remodelling of existing terminals in our 20 local airports.
*Some of the achievements and developments between 2013 till date include:
Achieve Airport Certification: Currently two of the international airports (Lagos and Abuja) in Nigeria have been certified while efforts to certify others are in on-going
Construction of series of brand new terminals with ultra-modern facilities, in our five International airports of MMIA, Lagos; NAIA, Abuja; MAKIA, Kano; Port-Harcourt International Airport and AIIA, Enugu. Abuja and Portharcourt already commissioned, while the three (3) others are to be completed and commissioned soon.
Remodelling of FAAN training school and subsequent certification as a training Institute
Improvement of runway end safety area at MMIA, Lagos
Repair of runway and apron at MMIA
Provision of transit lounge and hotel at MMIA
Construction of general aviation terminal at Wing D Abuja airport
Rehabilitation of runway at Abuja Airport
Upgrade and rehabilitation of Kaduna airport terminal Building
Direct procurement of solar power airfield lighting systems at ten (10) airports
Upgrade and refurbishment of terminal building at Kastina airport
Construction of bi-metal welded security operational fence at sokoto airport
Rehabilitation and upgrading of terminal building at ilorin airport
Control tower and technical building at Ibadan, Benin, Kaduna and Maiduguri airports
Rehabilitation of the fire station and provision of GAT Protocol Lounge at NAIA, Abuja
Upgrade/remodeling of Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar
Upgrade/remodeling of local terminal at AIIA, Enugu
Construction of bi-metal welded security operational fence at Kano airport
Procurement and installation of air – conditioning systems at MMIA and PHC airports
Construction of 2 fingers and installation of 4nos. Avio-bridges at MAKIA
*Despite these modest achievements, FAAN is constrained by the following factors namely:
a) Capacity and Contribution of Airports to revenue generation. – MMIA and Abuja mainly sustains other Airports.
b) Bureaucracies, bottlenecks and delays in review of rates/tariff on services. – The last time the Authority reviewed her charges was in 2011 over seven years ago and obviously requires realignment with current realities.
c) Government policy of waiving 65 per cent of gross revenue accruing from annual pilgrimage operations. – On an annual basis between $3 million and $4 million is being waived and this amount is not passed on to the passengers but to the airlines.
d) Court cases and Litigations instituted against the Authority. – Some of the litigations resulted in judgement debts which the Authority had to defray.
e) Economic challenges – Both national and international economic challenges affected airline operators which made them to reduce fleets, frequencies or totally withdrew operations
f) Debts arising from revenue generation e.g ARIK and AERO debts
Rising operating and maintenance cost of the new terminals and existing ones due to inflation and devaluation of the naira
*In keeping with our vision and mission we have strategically positioned ourselves to establish the following facilities/infrastructures going forward, if we are able to get support for adequate funding:
Murtala Muhammed International Airport
Redesigning of the terminal building
Completion of the new terminal building with its ultra-modern facilities
Replacement of Passenger Boarding Bridges at the existing terminal
Apron Expansion
Sewage rehabilitation
Runway rehabilitation (Domestic and International) including completion of taxiway B and Air Field Lightening (AFL) of domestic runway
Completion of cargo apron
Fencing of the operational areas including provision of surveillance gadget for security and safety of airport operations
Construction of Dry Cargo Terminal
Upgrade of domestic apron
Provision of Mono Rail from Ikeja Transport terminus to Murtala Muhammed International Airport
Upgrade of Power Supply Systems at the airport
Construction of additional multi-storey car park
Port Harcourt International Airport
Completion of Old terminal building
Rehabilitation of Landside access road
Completion of perimeter fence and road
Rehabilitation of taxi ways
Completion of all abandoned aprons
Completion of new terminal phase II
Construction of dry cargo terminal
Upgrade of power supply systems
Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja
Completion of the Multi-storey car park
Construction of 2nd runway with associated facilities
Construction of Dry Cargo Terminal
Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport
Completion of the new Terminal and Cargo building construction
Expansion of Cargo apron
Improvement of runway shoulder slopes.
Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu
Reconstruction of runway which is on-going
Completion of New Terminal Building and Cargo
Construction of perimeter fence
Upgrade of Airfield Lightening
Construction of perimeter road
Upgrade of power supply systems
*We have also identified the following areas for improving revenue:
On-going full automation of car parks, cargo operations and other Revenue points
Metering of all customers to ensure current and full amount are recovered for electricity consumptions.
Continuous reconciliation and renegotiation of outstanding debts to ensure better recoveries
Continuous engagement of customers to comply with the payment terms provided in the credit policy manual and enforcement of sanctions against reluctant or recalcitrant customers
Introduction of pay as you go system on some revenue heads especially with difficult customers
Seek government support in collecting AMCON related debts such as Arik and Aero, etc.
*Further measures in place to ensure efficiency and cost reduction are as follows:
Blocking all loopholes/leakages and commencement of cashless policy.
Setting up a management committee on efficiency with mandate to ensure judicious utilization of government resources
The committee is working assiduously on the mandate given.
Strict monitoring and evaluation
Review of policies, procedures and processes to enhance effectiveness and efficiency.
Strengthening the internal audit and controls to ensure value for money audit
Since salary gratuity and pension backlog are now being taken care off, a sinking fund account has been opened for FAAN debt repayment and also to save towards remittance to government consolidated revenue fund on monthly basis.
*In conclusion, I will like to reiterate that, Airport Business is global, technical, highly regulated with huge infrastructure requirement.
Nigeria is expected to be a hub in West Africa/Central Africa Sub-Region, this expectation can only be met with more funding to ensure provision of modern and up to date infrastructure and technology, this we believe can be achieved with your support.
