Ogun agro-cargo airport begins chartered flight operations

Ogun State Government said it has begun chartered flights operation at the state-owned Agro-Cargo International Airport located at the Iperu-Ilishan Road in Ikenne Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

The state government said it awaits the approval of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to begin commercial operations of the cargo airport.

The Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Ade Akinsanya, stated this on Monday during a tour to the facility yesterday in Ogun state.

According to him the airport is 95 per cent completed stating that the control tower is in place with equipment ready, saying the main terminal will be completed by January 2025.

He said there are multiple road networks to the airport stating that it will make it easier for people to access the airport.

Consultant to the project, Captain Dapo Olumide, said the airport is the first to have gotten an aerodrone for operating permit hence the delay for the project completion date.

He said the airport is solar powered stating that the Ogun State Government had the vision of the private sector in mind while building the airport.

He said the airport is perfect for hajj and pilgrimage operations to reduce the burden of overcrowding at the usual airports.

He said the location is prime for agro products even as the Nigerian Customs is relocating its federal operation unit to the state very close to the airport.

He said the airport has 12 kilometres of perimeter fencing for security against encroachment by villagers nearby.

Olumide said there are three companies that expressed interest for the concessioning of the airport

He explained that concessioning has to be clarified. A lot of people don’t understand what concessioning means like when you hear about Lagos being concessioned, Lagos is not being concessioned. The terminal building is being concessioned, not the airport; the runway will always remain fine.

“The taxiways will always remain fine but the concessioning of operations of the terminal building will be concessioned.

“Same thing here, so we are concessioning the infrastructure of the airport because this is slightly different from Lagos in the sense that this is primarily an aerotropolis. And because it’s an aerotropolis, that makes it more attractive for a concessionaire because then the concessionaire has the opportunity to build whatever they want to on top of what they have seen here in terms of the runway, the master plan, and the business plan.

“So, for example, if any of you wanted to take the concession of this airport, you would say, I have seen it’s an aerotropolis. You have a permit for an aerotropolis. So that means I can choose what type of hotels. I want to build a swimming pool thing. I want to do this. Whatever you want to do, you can do because it’s an aerotropolis. That’s what makes it attractive for a concessionaire beyond just the terminal.

“We also have backup power which is generators but we don’t want to use diesel generators because diesel is a messy thing. It’s subject to theft because you don’t know how much if you want to buy 10,000 liters. You don’t know whether they offload at 10,000 or not. So we relied on Solar and have a backup on starlink.”

Earlier in his remarks, Commissioner for Transportation, Ogun State, Gbenga Dairo, said the mission of the ministry was basically to support the economic, socio-economic development agenda through a multimodal transport system within the state.

He said transportation is one of the important pillars of that revolutionary intention to ensure that transportation is critical to socio-economic development to a centre stage in the administration of Governor Dapo Abiodun.

He said the government is set to put in place measures, infrastructure, services, improving ease of doing business in the state to attract a lot more activity into the state.

“Now, the multimodal dimension, I think I’ve mentioned that, where the multimodal dimension to the transportation dimension to the state, of course, starts with looking at the infrastructure that’s necessary to ensure that people can move from place to place safely, easily, and timely.

“99 percent of us use our roads to move from one place to the other and I think it was important and critical that that was done and I think to date we have probably done 600 or 700 kilometres since the beginning of this administration back in 2019.”