The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, (FAAN) on Wednesday defended its proposed N101.6 billion budget for 2019 at the National Assembly.
The Managing Director of the agency, Mr Saleh Dunoma, who gave the figures when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation said that the Authority proposed N101.67 billion in 2019 as against the N88,805,462,776 in 2018, representing a 14.5 percent increase.
Dunoma said that the increase was in anticipation of increase in passenger traffic as well as increase in the non-aeronautical revenue base of the Authority as already highlighted in the 2018 budget performance.
He explained: “The total proposed Revenue for 2019 of N101.67 billion is made up of N60.33 billion from the Aeronautical Revenue Sources N26.03 billion from the from the non-aeronautical sources and N16.92 billion as anticipated debts to be recovered.
“The Authority is also proposing a Total Recurrent Expenditure of N58.44 billion with N34.72 billion as Personnel Costs and other related costs, N23.72 billion as overhead costs for 2019. A proposal of N17.82 billion for Capital Budget against N16.78 billion approved for the year 2018”, Dunoma added.
According to him, the 6.2 percent increase in capital expenditure between 2018 and 2019 is largely as a result of “planned improvement in infrastructural development across the airports and efforts in certification with Port Harcourt and Kano International Airports in view for the year 2019.
This is even as he clarified that the provisional estimate of N25.42 billion, which is 25 per cent of the total revenue, was set aside against which the authority would be making quarterly interim remittances pending the audit of financial statements in determining the final operating surplus as stipulated by the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
The FAAN boss urged the committee to pass the proposed budget and also assist the authority in recovering most debts owed it by various aviation organisations.
He pleaded: “We pray that the committee will approve the budget and secondly, we want them to assist us to collect our debts from other organizations.”
According to him, the aviation sector agency has made a presentation of its performance on the 2018 budget and the submitted proposals for the 2019 appropriation budget to the House Committee on Aviation for its consideration and approval.
In her remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Nkiru Onyejiocha, charged the agency to ensure that all monetary reports were harmonised and presented to the Committee for proper documentation.
She said: “We want to see everything in black and white. This 8th assembly is winding down and we will want to give a handover note to others. We are trying to live up to the next level agenda of this government.”
