• Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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National carrier tops FG’s Aviation Roadmap for 2021

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The Federal Government has said the national carrier is its top priority in the road map for the aviation sector in 2021.

He stated these at the 2021 budget defence of the ministry and its agencies before the Senate Committee on Aviation at the National Assembly.

The minister said the road map which he noted would be implemented through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has the establishment of National Carrier as a top priority.

Shedding more lights in an interview with journalists after the budget defense, Sirika said that the much talked about a national carrier, Nigeria Air, was part of the Aviation sector roadmap, which would be delivered before 2023.

He said, “We are on it. The transaction adviser has brought in the outline business case. It is being reviewed by ICRC. Soon after it finishes, it will go to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and it will be approved. We will not leave this government without having it in place.”

On the need to site another airport in Lokoja, Kogi State capital as an alternate to Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, he said, “Lokoja is an important northern town. It is a cosmopolitan town, it’s a mini Nigeria and it is extremely very important in the growth and development of our country.”

He added, “We have a lot of agricultural activities around there. There is the fishery, there is perishable item production, and so on. So citing at an airport there is quite apt. For me, it is something we should have done long ago for its importance,” Sirika said.

Sirika said the government was working hard to fix the airports in deplorable conditions based on peculiar priority.

“We have been improving these airports at one airport after another. We don’t have the resources to take them all at once. We are attending to them, we look at an airport and find which is that safety item and which is that item of security that needs attention first before we now turn to other matters.

“Certainly we are making Ilorin one of the best airports because in the first place it was an alternate for Lagos,” he said.

Speaking earlier during the defence, Sirika said the sum of N78.9 billion was being proposed for capital expenditure with emphasis on the implementation of the aviation roadmap.

He listed other projects to be executed to include the establishment of Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRC) facility, development of Agro-Allied Cargo Infrastructure, the establishment of Aviation Leasing Company, Search and Rescue Unit, and establishment of Aerospace University with the support of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The minister, who claimed that aviation was the fastest growing sector in Nigeria, said the Federal Government was in the process of taking over some airports from states.

This committee chaired by Senator Smart Adeyemi bemoaned the deplorable conditions of some airports in the country.

Sirika said the government had done well by implementing a roadmap in the aviation sector.

According to him, 10 new airports are underway in response to the growing demands in the aviation sector in Anambra, Benue, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, and Gombe, among other states.

He noted that Kebbi, Osubi, and Dutse airports had been taken over by the Federal Government while the Gombe state government had also written the federal authorities to take over the Gombe Airport.