The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N2.6 billion as variation for the procurement of security and safety operations equipment for Maiduguri International Airport in Borno state.
Minister of Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika, said this Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“From civil aviation we presented three memoranda and all were approved. We got an approval for variation and additional costs on contract for procurement of security and safety operations equipment for Maiduguri International airport.
“You remember in the past, the President approved an expenditure of a little over N20 billion and it is that procurement that we sought to vary because of time and also the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that has been moved upward by the CBN from N306 to N416 to a dollar and the contracts were foreign component denominated so that called for the variation of the contract. The variation is in the sum of N2,636,340,471,” he said.
Giving updates on the floating of a national carrier, Nigeria Air, he said he still stands by his word that the carrier will take-off before the expiration of the tenure of President Buhari on May 29, as he assured that the next administration would sustain it..
“I think three weeks is a lot of time. Yeah. By the special grace of God it will fly. And don’t forget we didn’t start today. We started this in 2015. We drew up the roadmap; we got the transaction advisors in 2016.
“From 2016 we’ve been planning and planning and planning. Many airlines came more than 50% of the airlines today in Nigeria were licensed by us, by the Buhari’s administration. We are committed and luckily it is APC that will be in power again. We are committed to this project. This project is good for the Nigerian economy and for the traveling people.
“So this airline will be set up and the airline will be established now. And the incumbent government has no choice but to run with it. And the reason is 95% is not government owned 95% is owned by entrepreneurs. So the coming of the next government which is APC, won’t throw the investment away because it’s not their government so it will continue,” he said.
