Business
Concessioning, Better Than Privatisation -FAAN Boss
The Managing Director
of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Engineer Saleh Dunoma has said that concessioning of airports is better than privatization.
He said this is so because privatisation is the outright sale of the project while in the outright sale of the project, the government would still have a hand in its operations.
Dunoma who disclosed this to journalists at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa at the end of his inspection of facilities at the airport said the concessioning idea was a welcome development because of the competition and other related issues in the aviation industry like security, health and education, among others, that must be provided to enhance growth.
The FAAN boss assured workers and retirees of adequate protection and their welfare during and after the planned concession, arguing that concesioning will enhance competition and called for prudent management.
He said that FAAN was concluding plans to order its contractors back to site, to complete the abandoned project at the Port Harcourt International airport.
According to him, work at both the domestic and International terminals at the Port Harcourt airport were abandoned for over three years due to the inability of the Federal Governments to pay the contractors that were engaged.
“The Federal Government recently approved about N3 billion for the completion of the abandoned projects at the airport.
“The approval from the Federal Government was good news because apart from completing the abandoned terminal building, the other facilities that could not be installed because of the inability to complete the domestic building will now be put in place”, he said.