The Senate Committee on Aviation, yesterday directed the minister of Aviation, Stella Odua-Ogiewumi to provide the debt profile of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) within two weeks.
They also called for the review of all concession agreements which are not beneficial to the federal government by the end of 2011, even as they directed the minister to facilitate all necessary efforts on the need to have a national carrier that will be all participatory, with zero investment by the government.
These directives were contained in a communiqué resulting from a one-day interactive session between the minister’s team, including the permanent secretary in the ministry and the chief executive of all the six parastatals/agencies in the sector; and the senate committee which sought to address myriads of challenges threatening the aviation industry.? The meeting was held on October 18.
The committee said it would look critically and decide within a short time, the issue of out –of- court-settlement of the $6million given to Hydro Air Cargo Ltd, against NAMA and NCCAA on a suit brought against the agencies ,claiming the sum of $30million as special and general damages to their Boeing 747 aircraft for clearing the aircraft to land on the runway of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos, in spite of the fact that the runway had been closed for maintenance work. The committee is to work very fast in order to solve the problem.
?The communiqué signed by the committee chairman, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, reads in part, “The honourable minister of Aviation must facilitate all necessary efforts on the need to have a national carrier that will be all participatory, with zero investment from the government; the way it is done in other parts of the world.
“The minister of Aviation is to forward the debt profile of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Airspace management Agency (NAMA) to the committee in two weeks’ time for further action.
“The Federal Ministry of Aviation is to look into the concession agreement between FAAN and Bi-Courtney and come out with a concrete recommendation on the way forward.”
They further asked the ministry to partner with Israel for Christian pilgrimage, starting from the next pilgrimage, as they have partnered with Saudi Arabia for the Hajj pilgrimage in order to reduce the cost and make it more comfortable.
While they called the minister to develop an implementation strategy and funding map to achieve the transformation agenda, they said the minister was to support her short, medium and long term strategic initiatives with cost analysis and the financial implication and submit it to the committee.