FG To Reposition Aviation Industry

Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo this afternoon commissioned a newly built Domestic Terminal Building at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, MAKIA, Kano, North-West Nigeria, with a promise that the Federal Government is committed to repositioning the nation’s aviation industry.

Sambo also commissioned a Power Upgrade Project at the airport and laid the foundation for a world-class International Terminal Building which is expected to be completed within three years.

The new projects at MAKIA are expected to boost economic activities at the airport which has become a shadow of its past.

The Vice President said the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is poised to ensure total rehabilitation of infrastructure in all the airports across the country, adding that the target is to equip them with modern facilities that would meet the same standard anywhere in the world.

He regretted that for so long, facilities at MAKIA, particularly, the Domestic Terminal closed down for rehabilitation, “but this administration decided that the poor state of infrastructure in MAKIA should be adequately tackled,” adding that with the new structures in place, economic activities would bounce back to life at the once booming airport, just as more job opportunities would also be created.

The Vice-President also called on the private sector to exploit the Federal Government’s revolution in the aviation sector, pointing out that there abound investment opportunities in the nation’s airports, both for local and international investors, as advantages are there in government’s privatization programme.

He also revealed that plans have been concluded to give a facelift to other airports across the country which include: the construction of boundary fence and road at the Abuja airport; purchase of fire tenders with Mercedes –Benz chassis and installation of Melina bars, bird strike avoidance radar system in Lagos and Abuja; installation of bird strike amelioration and control at all the airports across the country; procurement of aircraft recovery equipment and 18 screening equipment as well as walk-through metal detectors in all the airports.

Benin, Maiduguri, Illorin, Ibadan, Akure, Kaduna, Owerri, Yola, Sokoto, Minna, Port-Harcourt, Calabar airports are set to receive facelift, even as the Federal Government has set aside counterpart fund for the construction of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua International Airport in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state.

Minister of Aviation, Mrs. Fidelia Akuabata Njeze in her speech noted that Kano International Terminal Building which foundation was laid today is the first in the series of new projects embarked upon by the ministry at various airports in the country, adding that “it is my belief that with the commissioning of the domestic terminal building, economic activities will surely increase in MAKIA.”

Njeze used the opportunity to express gratitude to the Central Bank of Nigeria under the leadership of Lamido Sanusi Lamido, who she said provided the state-of-the-art furniture at the newly constructed Domestic Terminal.

Also during his address, the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr. Richard Aisuebeogun noted that the scope of the upgrade power project entails the upgrading of the standby capacity of the airport’s 4MVA through the provision three new 1MVA generators, as well as the refurbishment of an existing 1MVA generator.

“It also entails the provision of one new 500KVA generator in the AFL switch room to enhance the reliability of AFL system,” adding that 13-panel 11KVA power control was also provided to facilitate efficient control and distribution of power supply, while a 2.5MVA 33/11KV feeder transformer was acquired as standby for the existing transformer.

For the International Terminal Building, the project is being handled by Crew Construction Company Nigeria Limited who is in a joint venture with Cremona Construction Co. Limited of Italy and Coffer Impex SRL of Romania.

When completed, the new International Terminal Building at MAKIA will replace the existing but outdated one known as the oldest International Terminal Building in Nigeria having begun operation since 1950.

P.M.NEWS recalls that MAKIA remains the cradle of civil aviation in Nigeria where the first flight operation was made in 1925 when a British Royal Air Force fighter plane made a reconnaissance flight into Kano.

Also, the first commercial flight in Nigeria in 1935 took off from MAKIA when the Imperial Airways operated a flight between Kano and Lagos.

The out-going Governor of Kano state, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, who mounted pressure on the Federal Government to revive MAKIA, described the commissioning of the new projects at the airport as, “my parting gift.”
By Maduabuchi Nmeribeh/Kano