Lagos toll plaza to earn FG N100 million monthly

Toll collectors at the Lagos airport access road have disclosed that the facility is worth N100 million a month.

The chairman of Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN), Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Branch, Ahmed Danjuma, said they had raked in N80 million from the plaza, and would hit the N100 million mark by month end.

A coalition of aviation workers unions, led by ATSSSAN and Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) on February 4, 2020, ousted the former concessionaire, Integrated Intelligent Imaging West Africa Limited (I-Cube) to forcefully take over the collection of tolls.

The unions said the I-Cube’s contract that fetched FAAN N68 million a month had expired a year ago.

I-Cube had immediately instituted a lawsuit against FAAN over breach of agreement and forceful takeover of the facility.

After about two months of running the plaza, Danjuma said the actual worth of the facility would emerge by month end, but “I assure you that we would be able to hit N100 million”.

He explained that “within the first month of operation, I think we generated over N80 million despite the teething problems. Initially, we had issues. For instance, l-Cube had sold all the stickers and even 2019 stickers are still being used by holders.

“Again, you know that our members were not guarded at night, so we don’t operate beyond 11 p.m. So, vehicles pass the access plaza for free between 11p.m. and 5a.m. Despite all these, we have been able to hit N80 million,” Danjuma said.

The chairman added that the unions took over the facility because they believe they could do it better.

“That was the main reason we even went there and, we have done creditably well. Our members are working very hard. The fear of inconsistency in government and managing businesses has been abused here. We have not seen that and we have been able to prove to everybody that yes, we can do it and we can do it better.”

On the series of indebtedness to FAAN by operators, Danjuma said the union had written to some of their debtors, requesting them  to offset their liabilities within a shortest possible time, just as they had advised management to call these debtors, sit down with them and negotiate on how best the debts could be recovered.

He said the essence of a union is the welfare of its members. He, however, maintained that they did not only emphasise welfare of workers, but first find out how they could make the system better so that welfare would now be second issue.

The General Secretary of ANAP, Abdulrazaq Saidu, added that the illegal concession of airport services was robbing the government of revenue and work for the workers, as FAAN has sufficiently trained workforce to run the facilities efficiently.