Stakeholders at the just concluded Chinet Aviation and Cargo Conference have commended the Ogun State government for building a state-of-the art airport to address the agrocargo challenge confronting the export of goods and agro products in the country.
This came just as the Agro Cargo Airport which was started in 2021 and described as the fastest built cargo airport in Nigeria has won the award for Concept and Design of a state airport in Nigeria at the second edition of the cargo conference.
The Commissioner of Finance and the Chief Economic Adviser, Ogun State, Mr Dapo Okubadejo at the 2021 edition of the conference engaged stakeholders and aviation experts on the inherent economics benefits of the airport to the South West region and the country in general.
Okubadejo at the 2021 Chinet conference promoted the airport as a great option for Nigerian and foreign investors with the promise to produce a Smart Airport within a year, a promise that has been delivered as showcased by the state’s Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure, Mr Ade Akinsanya and other delegates from the state at the Chinet 2022 conference.
The Agro – Cargo Airport the state government said was strategically located within an aerotropolis, the airport city at Ilishan, Remo along the Lagos–Ibadan expressway and Sagamu, Benin expressway.
According to Akinsanya, “the airport city also has close proximity to key industrial and agro-economic clusters within the state including Sagamu and Ijebu-Ode and other south western states. Agro-Cargo Airport activities will be supported by a distribution and logistics hub located within the Airport City.
“The airport has proximity to key agro-economic clusters with cash crop plantations and forest reserves, such as the Apoje Oil Palm Farms, Ilushin Estate, Remo Rubber Plantation and Lomiro Oil Palm Plantation. The newly established African Development Bank AfDB testing centre is nearby and will process goods slated for export.”
Equally, the airport is 30 minutes from the Federal Government rail station in Abeokuta and 30 minutes from Lagos-Ibadan express way and with proximity to several commercial vegetable greenhouses and meat processing plants, which include Zambeef and others.
Stakeholders at the conference while agreeing that Aviacargo industry in Nigeria was almost non-existent or at the lowest stage of development, lamented that almost all domestic cargo is road bound.
In addition, stakeholders noted that Nigerian laws on cargo exportation and importation are not in tandem with the development around the world. This is giving investors a massive challenge and is killing cargo exportation in the country. It is believed that with the commencement of the Ogun cargo Airport, most challenges faced in the aviacargo industry will abate.
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