**Purchase of Zaria Hotel too
By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
In a bid to keep pace with the changing world, the
Federal Ministry of Aviation’s name has been changed to Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace just as
the Federal Government has approved the concessioning of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano for 20 and 30 years, respectively.
This is even as the government is expected to generate $797.4m (N368.8bn) as concession fees and taxes from the Concessionair, Corporación America Airports.
The Minister of Aviation, Senator
Hadi Sirika, told State House Correspondents after weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at Presidential Villa, Abuja that the amount of money to be made from the concessioning deal equals the money government borrowed to build the airports.
“Put together it is about $800m. And this is equal to the amount of money that we borrowed to build those four airports,”
Sirika said FEC’s approval is part of the ministry’s roadmap items to concession the nation’s assets rather than privatising them.
He explained, “It is a concession of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport. The consortium that won the bid are MSSRS Corporación America Airports consortium and in the consortium, they have Mota-Engil Africa and MSSRS Mota-Engil Nigeria and this is through a PPP and it’s for 20 years for Abuja and 30 years for Kano.”
On the amounts payable to the government as fees and taxes, he said “The concession fees or upfront fees is $7m for Abuja and $1.5m to be given for Kano. Fixed concession fee is $401.2m for Abuja and fixed fees for Kano is $21m.
“The variable costs concession fee is $154m for Abuja and $26.9m for Kano. Tax $111.2m for Abuja and $42.7m for Kano.
The ICRC’s supervision fees is $16.4m for Abuja and $5.3m for Kano.
“So the total amount of money that is accruing to government is $700m for Abuja and then $97.4m for Kano. Put together, it is about $800m. This is equal to the amount of money that we borrowed to build those four airports.”
Sirika explained that the aforementioned fees are completely separate from the direct fees the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria will continue to earn from passenger service charge, which is projected to be $4bn (N1.84tn).
