N92b Abuja airport second runway gets land, ready in 12 months

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has allocated land for construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, estimated to cost N92 billion.

Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who made the disclosure via a twitter post, said the contract, which had been awarded to China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation Nigeria Limited (CCECC), would be delivered in 12 months.

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), also, confirmed the development, adding that 12,000 hectares of land had been made available for the project and others on the Aviation Roadmap.

Sirika, in 2016, launched the master plan, for transformation of the nation’s air transport sector. Embedded in the roadmap are: Maintenance Repairs and Overhaul (MRO) Centre; Aviation Leasing Company (ALC); Agro-Allied Cargo Terminals; Aerotropolis or Airport City; National Carrier; Africa Aerospace and Aviation University (AAAU) and the second runway.

Acting General Manager, Corporate Affairs of FAAN, Faithful Hope-Ivbaze, said: “Some of the benefits that would accrue to Nigeria at the completion of the projects are: employment opportunities for Nigerians; enhanced transfer of technology; increase in foreign exchange earnings/increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contribution; backward integration of aircraft maintenance and repair facilities for both domestic and international carriers; improvement in ease of doing business in Nigeria; reduction in capital flight; increase in Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs), amongst others.”

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had, in March 2022, approved a contract sum of N92.12 billion for the runway. Former Commandant of Lagos Airport in the 90s, Group Captain John Ojikutu (rtd), however, faulted the sum and project, describing them as unjustifiable.

He queried: “N92 billion to build a runway or airport? What is the length of the runway – four or five kilometres? Costing over N20 billion per kilometre or N20,000,000 per metre? Why are our major construction projects going to CCECC and no more Julius Berger?

“Do we need a second runway in any of our airports, including Lagos, or what is the total air traffic in each? The total traffic in the 22 federal airports is not up to Johannesburg or Gatwick. How many are the runways in each of them? We are planning to concession these airports, why can’t we include the runway in the concessions if it is very necessary?”

The expert had raised similar questions in 2014 when the same project was estimated to cost N64 billion. He continued: “Between then and now, or eight years after, the cost has increased by N28 billion when most of the materials can be obtained locally. What is really wrong with us as a people? In a situation when most airports have no adequate landing facilities or efficient air navigational and air traffic services equipment to sustain efficient air traffic operations, we need to do a serious and critical rethink.”