The Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika has revealed that N1billion has been approved to fast track the completion of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu terminal building being built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC).
This is just as he has reassured the Enugu state Governor and other South Eastern Governors that the Federal Government would finish the cargo terminal at the Enugu Airport to ensure commercial activities in the south-east are lifted.
Sirika made the disclosure at the reopening of the Enugu Airport which was shut down on August 24th, 2019 to rehabilitate the bad airport runway and upgrade it along with the taxiway and improve other facilities at the airport.
According to the Minister who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, the airport is going to be made to be one of, if not the best in the country.
Sirika said: “I want to assure your excellencies that having delivered this project on time and on budget, the next focus is to deliver the cargo terminal, the international terminal building and many more.
“As a matter of fact, yesterday Saturday before I left my office, I had approved and released the sum of N1billion to continue works in the international terminal.”
“The commissioning is not without challenges, some of the challenges include lack of bitumen, lack of fairy dust which we had to go to Kogi State to get, the rains the COVID-19 lockdown and something very unique that happened during the lockdown.
This is as the Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Rabiu Yadudu has described the reopening of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu as a confidence booster to stakeholder.
He remarked that the airports reopening would stimulate economic activities in the region.
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Captain Yadudu, while speaking yesterday at the reopening ceremony, explained that aviation is confidence imbuing and needed stakeholders needed to rely on that confidence.
He said that the runway surface suffered continuous deterioration as a result of age and this marred the confidence of those flying and so the government had to take the painful but important decision to shut the Airport and rehabilitate the runway.
“Akanu Ibiam International airport Enugu was closed to aircraft traffic due purely to safety concerns. It was a difficult but necessary decision to forestall unforeseen situations that were potentially dangerous and disastrous to aircraft operations.
“It was a big decision because this airport is a major part of our operations and revenue generation but in aviation we have to take the interest of safety and security and the economic interest of our people, our stakeholders which is all Nigerians.
