New Telegraph

Okowa: Concessionaire to manage Asaba Airport for 30 years

Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa has said that the Asaba Airport Company Limited would manage the budding Asaba International Airport for the initial period of 30 years. According to the governor, the concessionaire company would remit N100 million yearly to the coffers of the state government. Okowa, who noted that the company would pay N1 billion upfront to the state government on or before the first 15 days of business after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), disclosed this during the signing of the MoU at the airport venue in Asaba, the state capital.

The governor said the treaty would go a long way to shore up the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) base of the state, provide employment and enhance better service delivery at the airport, however, lamented that the airport was downgraded despite the initial efforts of his predecessor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to complete the project.

The governor said: “Unfortunately, the vision suffered a major setback when the airport was downgraded to a Category III Airport by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) a few months before my administration came on board.

That meant that the airport could only accommodate smaller aircraft such as the Q400 and DASH 8. In the face of an economic recession at the time, we were confronted both with the challenge of upturning the downgrade and turning the airport into a model economic platform that is self-sustaining through a robust public-privatepartnership.” He said that the concessionaire would undertake the development of Mandatory Capital Projects, and they would be completed within a period of three years from the effective date of the transaction. The Mandatory Capital Projects, according to him, include Airport/Terminal Facility, Cargo Facility, Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) Facility, Tank Farm Facility, Industrial Park and Office Facility, and Hotel and Conference Facility.

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