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The federal government has announced plans to build seven more cargo airports across the country.
The minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, who unveiled this while speaking on the ongoing efforts of the government to establish a standard roadmap for the sector, emphasized the resolve of the government to develop cargo facilities that will facilitate seamless movement of both perishable and non-perishable cargo goods around the country and the world.
According to Sirika: “I am happy to say that four of them have been completed, Abuja and the rest of them. We are also building seven more. The contracts have been awarded in Ekiti, Kaduna, Jos, Katsina, Yola, Calabar, Port Harcourt, and Enugu. We are attending to that, and all of these are being developed under the roadmap. You can imagine the ability to ferry out of, let’s say, Katsina, 40 tons of tomatoes into England. “The amount of foreign exchange you are going to earn is enormous. You can imagine flying tomatoes, chilly peppers, or onions to Port Harcourt from Kano because if you go by road, you will spend 28 hours and they will perish before you get there, but flying 45 minutes or one hour will take them there fresh and you will have them there. This is also part of the roadmap.
On the planned aerotropolis project, Sirika declared: “The airport city in Lagos has been designed to link the old airport with the new airport by rail and also to develop all the areas where FAAN, NAMA, and others have those structures to completely give them out and to put a private sector initiative there for offices, hotels, cinemas, spars, and what have you. In spite of the roadmap, all the plans have been developed, all the consultancy services have been given and all the works have been done and given to the private sector and to those of you that are interested.”
The aerotropolis project, the minister said, would form part of the incentives required by private investors to make the airports better after their concession.
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