The managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Rabiu Yadudu, has hinted that the organization was proposing a revenue budget of N188 billion for the year 2022 as against N125.4 billion approved for the year 2021, which represented an increase of 50.4%.
This came just as the FAAN MD has announced that in spite of the effect of the pandemic that FAAN did not have an operating surplus, but was able to remit N16.7 billion to the Federation Account as a contribution to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as at the end of December 2021 which he said had impacted on its ability to adequately meet up with the organization’s obligations.
The projection he said was arrived at with the hope that the effect of the pandemic would have been over thereby leading to an increase in passenger traffic, as well as a boost in the non-aeronautical revenue base of the authority.
Yadudu who stated this during the oversight visit of the National Assembly joint Committees on Aviation at the weekend used the opportunity to declare the intention of the organization to terminate the non-performing concession agreements it had with some investors and engage new concessionaires.
He equally expressed the readiness of FAAN to apply stiff sanctions on indebted private airport terminals for non-payment for various services rendered by FAAN.
All these actions against its debtors he said will help tackle the financial difficulties of FAAN as he attributed this to why the Authority had shifted its focus from the aeronautical sources of revenue to the non-aeronautical so as to further improve the revenue performance.
His words: “And to this end, FAAN has commenced an aggressive sensitization with respect to areas at the airports where investors can come in. Specific areas where effort is being focused on include: Advertisement, car parks, Private Airport Terminal operators and Bi-Courtney (BOT) revenue sources. On advertisement, the Authority is taking steps to terminate the non-performing concession agreements and engage new concessionaires.
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“We hope to make significant progress before the end of 2nd quarter. Car parks Automation at the various Airports is presently ongoing, before the end of the year we should have achieved a great result.”
Yadudu though agreed that FAAN was still faced with some challenges on debt recovery most especially on debts owed by ARIK Air which he said constituted a significant portion of the Authority’s debt portfolio, he, however, commended the efforts of the Committees on Aviation with respect to intervention so far in the recovery of ARIK debts inherited by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) as he called for further assistance to bring the issue to a logical conclusion as the huge debts are still outstanding.
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