The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) on Sunday issued a seven-day ultimatum to all its debtors to settle all debts owed to the Authority or face its final decision.
The final demand notice expires August 24, 2015, Yakubu Dati, FAAN’s spokesperson, said.
BuisnessDay gathered that airlines, concessionaires, contractors and other users of the Authority’s facilities’ debt might be up to N18 billion.
The Authority had in February this year, at all Nigerian airports, threatened to publish a list of such debtors in major Nigerian newspapers as a prelude to other measures designed to help it recover all its outstanding debts.
It added that it was constrained to take this measure because the level of indebtedness to the Authority might soon begin to take a toll on its services, which should not be allowed to happen, in the overall interest of safety and security at airports.
“The Authority has also observed, rather sadly, that most of its customers deliberately refuse to pay their charges/fees long after FAAN has rendered them statutory services.
“All affected debtors have earlier been communicated with details of their respective indebtedness to the Authority,” Dati said.
He said the affected debtors, where in doubt, were advised to liaise with the Authority’s Credit Control Department at its headquarters for reconciliation of their accounts within the period of this notice.
“At the expiration of this notice, the Authority would, pursuant to a Presidential directive, be compelled to take necessary measures to recover these debts. FAAN is self sustaining and cannot meet its responsibilities within the burden of these huge debts,” he said.
BusinessDay gathered that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority might soon follow suit by publishing names of debtors, especially, airlines, as it threatened earlier.
An official of the Authority said this was because the responses from the debtors were not impressive.
