The Federal Government has announced the approval of the concession of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano.
The approval of the two airports’ concession was part of the decisions taken at Federal Executive Council’s (FEC’s) meeting on Wednesday chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari
Giving this hint during an interactive session with journalists after the meeting of the FEC at the Presidential Villa, the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, said that the concession of the Abuja airport was for 20 years while the Kano airport’s will be for 30 years.
He said: “Abuja airport will be concession for 20 years while the international airport in Kano will be concession for 30 years.”
The minister also explained that the FEC also approved the draft National Civil Aviation Policy designed to strengthen the nation’s civil aviation.
Sirika also disclosed that the government renamed the Federal Ministry of Aviation to Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace of Nigeria with immediate effect.
It would be recalled that the Council had last week approved N449.9 million for the engagement of consultants for the development of a Master Plan for 17 airports in the country
In a related development, the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Jerry Agba, also told State House correspondents that the FEC approved two memos for the ministry.
He listed the approved memos as for the award of contract for the procurement of 25 numbers of 33 KV circuit breakers and 120 numbers of surge arrestors for systems use for Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN); the variation due to price escalation on the construction of the Dukanbo Shonga 132 KV double circuit transmission line
According to him, on the first approval the contract value is in the neighborhood of N140 million as argumentation.
He clarified: “The contract has been awarded before they are ongoing, but we asked for approval for revaluation due to price escalation and additional works. We’re building new sub stations in one of the places.”
On the approved the variation due to price escalation on the construction of the Dukanbo Shonga 132 KV double circuit transmission line, Agba expatiated: “Shonga is in Kwara state and that line has been down for several years. So, with this procurement, we should be able to revemp the station and you know is an agro based area that’s the area which services the Bacita farm.
“The Shonga Farms Limited and the whole of that area has been in darkness for a long time. With this procurement we hope that in two months, we should have full power supply to those areas and restore farming and processing activities in that area. The cost is N1.5 billion”, he added.
