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Ogun government has said it will soon recoup all expenses on the state’s Agro Cargo Airport as various international aviation companies jostle for concessional operations.
Governor Dapo Abiodun, who spoke with newsmen after inspection of the airport, said commercial flights would begin operations at the airport before end of the year.
He said concessioning of the facility would be done in the next one and half months with the state recouping the money expended on the facility.
The airport, which was located on Iperu-Ilishan Road in Ikenne Local Government Area of the state, was conceptualised as an aero-tropolis, based on its strategic location, being contiguous to the nation’s commercial capital of Lagos.
He said: “I’m sure in the next 30 to 45 days, we should sign the dotted lines of the concessioning of this airport, which would mean everything the airport has cost us would completely be repay to us and we can use the money to pay our debt and also begin to look at other projects.”
He also said the airport would be granted approval to commence commercial operations by the end of 2023, which will see both local and international flights landing at the airport.
“This airport, sometime by the end of November or December would be fully granted approval. Commercial operations would start here. It means you can board a flight to Abuja, Port Harcourt and I am sure by the end of the year, you will begin to see international flights leave and land in this airport by the grace of God,” he said.
Governor Abiodun said Ogun State is building is a truly international airport that can compete with anyone around the world, adding that his government decided to take the plunge to build the facility because failure to do so would have meant waiting forever.
“We are building a truly international airport. And we believe we, as government, should be facilitators to the enablers. We have de-risk this project because as much as we believe that as government, we don’t have any business in business, we realise the fact that were we to wait for others to come and build this airport, we would probably be waiting after I must have left office.
“But, what did we do? We decided to look for fund and build this airport and then concession it to others, thereby de-risking the project. So, today, what you see is a world class airport that, in itself, is attracting the attention of airport operators around the world.
“We have a process that is in place where a few others have expressed interest to get the airport concession to them. It is very exciting that the airport is not completed and yet people are jostling to take over the airport, pay us all that it has cost us and begin to run this airport. Had we not built this airport to world class standard, nobody would come here.
“There are other airports all over the country that different states have built and I don’t know how much interest those airports are receiving all over the world, but this airport is receiving interest from international airport operators around the world.
“You will see that our initiatives, vision, dedication, intentionality, resolute, our refusal to be distracted by treacherous politicians and backstabbers and our resolved to remain focus, is paying off.”
The governor described the runway, administrative building, apron and the control tower at the airport as the best in the country.
