The Akure Airport has been designated a perishable and non-perishable cargo airport by the Federal Government. The Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah said so when she paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Mimiko in Akure on Monday.
According to the Minister, the perishable cargo terminal project at the airport is meant to harness the agricultural export capacity of the state as it will provide a gateway for farmers and industrialist to have access to international market.
She also added that the perishable cargo concept would open up the economy, develop local market, reduce rural-urban migration, create jobs, and assist farmers by creating wealth, leading to what she called the “farm to supermarket concept”.
Governor Mimiko, in his remarks, expressed his unreserved appreciation to the Federal government and the Minister for the decision to give the socio-economic landscape of Ondo state a face-lift. He further stated that the aviation sector had witnessed significant improvement since the coming of the Princess Stella Oduah as Minister of Aviation and assured the minister of the support and cooperation of the state government towards the speedy completion of the project. Governor Mimiko also commended the Minister for transforming the country’s aviation to a World class standard.
The minister who was accompanied on the tour by chief executives of Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency also took the governor on an inspection tour of on-going project at the Akure Airport and assured him that, in the next three months, the cargo terminal project would be completed.
Meanwhile, the massive investment in the transformation of our airports has increased the growth of mail movement across the country.
This transformation has led to the reliance of courier companies on air transport which is a safer and faster means of transportation.
A total of 1, 718, 481, 34 kilogrammes of mails were carried in the third quarter of 2013 as compared with 1, 133, 486 kilogrammes in the third quarter of 2012.
The aviation transformation is a key component of the Aviation Master Plan initiated by Stella Oduah, Minister of Aviation. It is designed to modernise all the 22 airports terminals in the country towards restructuring them as centre point of economic activity and investor’s destination.
