Ogun State governor Prince Dapo Abiodun has declared that the state government would soon recoup all expenses on the state’s Agro Cargo Airport because various international aviation companies are jostling for concessional operations.
The airport, which was located along Iperu-Ilishan road in Ikenne local government area was conceptualised as an aerotropolis, based on its strategic location, being contiguous to the nation’s commercial capital of Lagos.
The governor, shortly after inspection of the airport at the weekend had a chat with newsmen, asserting that commercial flights would begin operations at the airport before the end of the year.
He added that the concessioning of the facility would be done in the next one and half months with the state recouping the money expended on the facility.
He said, “I’m sure that in the next 30 to 45 days, we should sign the dotted lines of the concessioning of this airport, which would mean that everything the airport has cost us would completely be repay back to us and we can use the money to pay our debt and also begin to look at other projects.”
The governor also noted that the airport would be granted approval to commence commercial operations by the end of 2023, which will see both local and international flights landing at the airport.
“This airport, sometime by the end of November, December would be fully granted approval. Commercial operations would start here. It means that you can board a flight to Abuja, Port Harcourt and I am sure that by the end of the year, you will begin to see international flights leave wherever and land in this airport by the grace of God,” Prince Abiodun said.
Governor Abiodun said what Ogun State is building is a truly international airport that can compete with anyone around the world, adding that his government decided to take the plunge to build the facility because failure to do so would have meant waiting forever.
He said: “We are building a truly international airport. And we believe that we as a government should be facilitators to the enablers. We have de-risk this project because as much as we believe that as a government, we don’t have any business in business, we realise the fact that were we to wait for others to come and build this airport, we would probably be waiting after I must have left office.”
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