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The Managing Director of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Olubunmi Kuku, has said that Nigeria’s airport infrastructure needs to depend less on building terminals but on growing passenger numbers, and on getting public-private partnership (PPP) contracts right from the outset.
Speaking during a panel session on day two of the African Air Transport Convention & Expo 2026, titled “Strategic Direction on Aviation Financing and Infrastructure Development,” Kuku said successful PPP models are not just a function of how much capital is available, but of institutional credibility, regulatory certainty and project discipline.
She referenced the long-running concession dispute over Lagos’s MM2 terminal, run by Bicourtney Aviation Services, as a case study, saying that the contract has now been renegotiated and the matter resolved at the level of the Federal Executive Council, a development she said should boost investor confidence in future Nigerian aviation concessions.
She added that the government wants future concession agreements to be structured more fairly for both sides, with clearer rules around how such projects are managed once they are running.
On financing, Kuku rejected calls from other stakeholders for new aviation financing institutions, saying she does not support the idea.
Instead, she argued that existing development finance institutions (DFIs) should set up specialised aviation desks, offering project-preparation support and technical capacity to help stakeholders bring genuinely “bankable” projects to the table.
She also called for clearer regional commitments on delivery timelines from both financiers and project sponsors, and cited FAAN’s own plans to extend Lagos’s red line rail into airport terminals as an example of a project where co-financing, backed by FAAN’s existing cash flows, could work.
Outlining her role in overseeing 22 federally owned airports while also regulating services at state-run and private airports, Kuku said her background in infrastructure finance had shaped how FAAN assesses investment needs.
She said Nigeria’s air travel is considered one of the safest modes of transport in the country, even as the agency works to balance what is bankable against broader socioeconomic and investment needs.
With a population above 220 million but annual passenger traffic of only around 17 million, she said the real growth opportunity lies in transit passengers and cargo, not in building bigger terminals.
She said states often approach FAAN claiming strong cargo potential without backing it up with data, and that her office now asks for end-to-end value-chain figures before making investment decisions.
Kuku said the agency has drawn up a short, medium and long-term roadmap that distinguishes between its most viable airports and its secondary ones.
AaIn the short term, she said the focus is on stabilising operations and making travel more seamless rather than building large new facilities.
”FAAN has rolled out e-gates, signed up to the Advance Passenger Information/Passenger Name Record (API/PNR) system, and is introducing biometric checks on departure. A planned self-service check-in rollout hit regulatory snags around check-in procedures, which the agency is still working through, while RFID technology is being deployed for baggage handling,” she said.
For Nigeria’s secondary airports, Kuku said FAAN is examining options such as government guarantee schemes to attract airlines willing to develop new routes, alongside targeted state intervention on safety-critical infrastructure that is not commercially bankable on its own.
Bankable opportunities, she said, will largely come from commercialisation, cargo handling and turning select airports into regional connectivity hubs.
