The Enugu State Caucus in the House of Representatives has endorsed the federal government’s plan to concession the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
It described it as a potential catalyst for the South East economy and commended the federal government for the initiative.
The caucus, however, urged it to hasten the concession process so that the people of the South East and the nation could earnestly benefit from it.
The House of Representatives members equally called on the region’s people to support the concessions, as this was the only way to guarantee sustainable investment and fully develop the airport into a genuinely international facility.
The caucus made its position known in a statement signed and issued on Monday by the caucus leader, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, as well as Hon. Martins Oke, Hon. Dennis Agbo, Hon. Anayo Onwuegbu, Hon. Chimaobi Atu, Hon. Sunday Umeha, Hon. Paul Nnamchi, and Hon. Mark Obetta. These are the representatives of all eight federal constituencies in Enugu State.
“Due to poor capital investment, the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, AIIA, Enugu, remains partially completed and indeed an international airport only in name over two decades since it was designated as such by the federal government. Critical components such as the cargo terminal, runway, international terminal, among others, are either non-existent or require completion or upgrade.
“Businesses and the people of the South East, primarily, have borne the brunt of these inadequacies, which manifest in the paucity of international flights and intermittent airport closures for runway repair, as recently witnessed.
“Therefore, we believe that the concessioning of the airport, as currently being processed by the federal government, is the only realistic approach to attracting adequate resources to build the requisite infrastructure and expand existing ones to place AIIA in the league of other international airports around the world,” the caucus said.
The statement explained that concession was not the same thing as privatisation or sale of the airport, as peddled by some, but a well-known and tenured Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework that pulls private capital investment into public infrastructure. At the same time, the government retains ownership and regulatory or supervisory authority.
“We call on the federal government to hasten this process so that the people of the Southeast region, in particular, and Nigeria, in general, can start benefiting from its vast possibilities and blessings.
“Indeed, we also have faith in federal government through the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria and the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development to entrust AIIA to a concessionaire with the financial and technical prowess, strong international pedigree and reputation as well as antecedent of verifiable successes to actualise the target, as nothing less can be acceptable and capable of catalysing the much-needed South East regional economic prosperity and transformation,” the statement added.
