The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) paid N16.7 billion into the federation account as contribution to the consolidated revenue fund as of December 2021.
The managing director of the agency, Capt Rabiu Yadudu disclosed this when he played host to the senate and house of representatives joint committee on aviation in Lagos at the weekend.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic had taken a toll on the global aviation industry even as steps are being taken to stem the tide of the virus.
Currently, he said the passenger traffic is still about 56 per cent of pre-COVID traffic.
Nonetheless, Yadudu said year 2021 was a better year when compared with 2020.
“It is worthy to mention that even though FAAN does not have operating surplus, we had to remitN16.7 billion to the federation account as contribution to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as at the end of December 2021, for the year 2021 alone, in spite of the effect of the pandemic during this period.
For the 2022 fiscal year, the managing director said FAAN proposed a revenue budget of N188 billion as against N125.4 billion approved for the year 2021.
“This gives an increase of 50.4 per cent. This projection was arrived at with the hope that the effect of the pandemic would have been over thereby leading to an increase in passenger traffic, as well as boost in the non-aeronautical revenue base of the authority as already highlighted in the 2021 budget performance,” he said.
Yadudu announced that FAAN had shifted its focus from the aeronautical sources of revenue to the non-aeronautical so as to further improve it revenue performance.
Aggressive sensitisation is going on with respect to areas at the airports where investors can come in.
He said specific areas where effort is being focused on include advertisement, car parks, private airport terminal operators.
“On advertisement, the authority is taking steps to terminate the non-performing concession agreements and engage new concessionaires. We hope to make significant progress before the end of second quarter.
“Car parks automation at the various airports is presently ongoing, before the end of the year we should have achieved a great result.
“On the private airport terminals, stiff sanctions are going to be applied for non-payment for various services rendered by FAAN,” he said.
On the outstanding debts owed to the agency, Yadudu said FAAN was still face with debt recovery most especially the one owed by Arik Air, which, according to him, constitutes a significant portion of the Authority’s debt portfolio.
However, he commended the effort of the committees on aviation with respect to intervention so far in the recovery of Arik debts inherited by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
However, he said “we need further assistance to bring the issue to a logical conclusion as the huge debts are still outstanding.”
