The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has clarified that the concession of Lagos International Airport may still be possible.
Naija News reports that Keyamo made the clarification following a headline report of a national daily that misquoted the Minister.
At the Aviation Unions Stakeholders’ Forum, held in Lagos on Friday, Keyamo said discussions on concession were ongoing, but he would look at the documents before taking it to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
“I maintained my words that nothing will happen without the unions being carried along and the clear interest of the workers will be taken care of. As I speak with you, I don’t even know what they are negotiating. It is when we get to the point to decide whether we should even continue with those firms, whether they have capacity or not. At that point it will fall back to me because I will be the one that will take the concession document to the federal executive council meeting.
“I will now see all the documentations, business cases and everything and look at it and decide whether it will go to FEC or not and then look if it has taken care of the union or not. At what point do we bring you in, which is just the issue here. However, because we are public officers with nothing to hide, I tell my Special Assistant of Public Private Partnership and the Permanent Secretary that whatever stage they are now on the discussions, whether it is a proposal, whether it is exploratory, bring in the unions now, because there is nothing to hide. Let them report to their members per second,” he told the stakeholders at the meeting.
Following the misquoting in the headline, the Minister of Aviation explained that the federal government may still concession the airport even after refurbishing it.
According to him, the federal government was considering sourcing for funds to rehabilitate the effort. However, the government would still be open to concessions even after spending its funds on rehabilitating it for proper running.
“This headline is not a reflection of my speech at the Stakeholders’ forum held in Lagos last Friday. What I said is that the Federal Government is considering sourcing for funds to totally refurbish the Lagos International Airport.
“The model of funding is yet to be finalised, but even if the Federal Government invests its own funds in rehabilitation, it does not stop the concessioning of the airport for the purpose of proper running and management,” he clarified on Monday on his 𝕏 handle.
