Enugu Reps caucus backs concession of state airport

The Enugu State caucus in the House of Representatives has pledged its support for the Federal Government’s plan to concession the AkanuIbiam International Airport, Enugu, describing it as a potential catalyst for the South-East economy.

The caucus commended the Federal Government for the initiative, urging it to hasten the concession process to enable the people of the region and the nation to benefit from it in earnest.

It equally called on the people of the region to support the concessions as the only way to guarantee sustainable investment to fully develop the airport into a truly international facility.

The caucus made its position known in a statement signed and issued yesterday by the caucus leader, Nnolim Nnaji, as well as Martins Oke, Dennis Agbo, AnayoOnwuegbu, Chimaobi Atu, Sunday Umeha, Paul Nnamchi, and Mark Obetta, representing all eight federal constituencies in Enugu State.

The caucus said: “Due to poor capital investment, the AkanuIbiam International Airport (AIIA), Enugu, remains partially completed and, indeed, an international airport only in name since it was designated over two decades ago by the Federal Government. Critical components such as the cargo terminal, the runway, and the international terminal, among others, are either non-existent or require completion or upgrade.

“Businesses and the people of the South-East, especially, have borne the brunt of these inadequacies, which manifest in the paucity of international flights and intermittent closure of the airport for repair, as recently witnessed.

“Therefore, we believe that the concession 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 statement explained that concession was not the same thing as privatisation or sale of the airport, as being peddled by some persons, but a well-known and tenured Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework, which pulls private capital investment into public infrastructure while the government retains ownership and regulatory or supervisory authority.