News
Nigeria Borrowed N1bn From Chinese To Repair Airports – Minister
The Nigerian Government borrowed N1 billion from the Chinese for the concession of the airports. repair airports
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, recently made this revelation.
Speaking at a webinar organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group on Thursday, he said that the compliance certificate for the concession of the nation’s airports has been received.
Four of the nation’s International airports are up for concession. They are the airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano.
Sirika said, “Currently, we borrowed about N1bn from the Chinese to put into our four airports. If we were to have made the decision at the time, we would not have borrowed money to repair airports. We would have ‘concessioned’ the airports and used other peoples’ money to achieve what we want and get a better deal in the end.
“The current government is social democratic in nature. We will not be selling public assets. They belong to the people. We will concession them and get them back at a later date and re-concession them and get them back. It makes more sense for us to get people whose business is to run the airports.”
The minister stressed that concession would not stop at the four airports singled out for the purpose.
Making a case for a national carrier, Sirika said Nigeria deserved one.
He said it may not be branded with the country’s name but it should be able to do something close to what Ethiopian Airlines is doing.
Recall that there has been protests against the planned concession of four International Airports in the Country.
The protest is by workers under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals, (ANAP), and the National Air Transport Employees of Nigeria, (NUATE).
