Nigeria Content Online

The Minister of
Aviation, Fidelia Njeze has disclosed that the Ministry plans to build
a new airport in Bayelsa State, the home state of the President,
Goodluck Jonathan.

The Bayelsa State
airport is an addition to the previously planned new international wing
at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport Abuja and seven others to be remodelled
across the country. Mrs Njeze stated this on Tuesday when the ministry
defended its 2011 budget before the senate committee on aviation headed
by Sylvester Anyanwu.

In her argument,
the Minister said, “the airport network in Nigeria was built in the
1970s and early 1980s. Since then, there has been no major investment
by the federal government in upgrading, renewing or replacing airport
terminals,” she said. “The terminal buildings have become obsolete in
design and functionality, are in various stages of decay and are not
reflective of modern airports in emerging markets.” The minister,
however, did not disclose the cost of the new airports and those to be
remodelled, neither did she respond to Umaru Dahiru’s (PDP Sokoto)
probe on why there should be a new airport in Bayelsa State.

The ministry’s
total budget proposal for 2011 is pegged at N27.156 billion. A larger
chunk of the fund, N20.741 billion will be spent on capital projects
while Personnel and overhead will cost N3.972 billion and N2.441
billion respectively.

The minister,
however, stated that in order to achieve their vision, the ministry is
considering other funding options beside the budget. These options will
include: special intervention fund by the federal government, Public
Private Partnership/ concessioning of some of the airports, and the
Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) Fund which currently hold $76
million.

2010 budget review

A review of the
ministry’s 2010 budget performance indicates that only N27.9 billion of
the ministry’s total allocation of N45 billion in the 2010 budget has
so far been released to the ministry. The minister cited uncertainty of
the budget, unexpected and multiple budget reviews, ageing workforce,
and cumbersome process of obtaining Letters of Credit for off shore
procurements through the statutory financial institutions as the
challenges the ministry is facing with the implementation of the 2010
budget.