Nigeria okays concession of Lagos, Abuja airports

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After several years of pussyfooting, Nigeria’s federal government has approved the concession of Lagos and Abuja airports.

The approval was given at the federal executive council, FEC, earlier today in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

The concession of the two airports is long overdue because the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Aiport respectively are two of Nigeria’s most busy airports but they are sadly one of the least modernized in the world.

Commenting on the details of the approval, Hadi Sirika, the minister of state for aviation said that the process of picking managers of the airport would be transparent.

“Public-Private-Partnership and concession in the airports have never been done in a structured and transparent manner.”

“The contracts are not properly prepared, no risk analysis and no financial models. Consequently, it is not surprising that they ended in litigation. I want to assure stakeholders that we will be transparent and the concession is in the best interest of the country.

“We will ensure that Nigerians are given priority in getting jobs in the aviation sector. We will give adequate time for the airlines to prepare themselves but for sure, we will ensure that it happens soonest,” he said.

Who are the likely winners of the concession?

As the bid for these two airports heats up, there are major airport concession companies who will put in for the bid.

TAV Airports Holding Company is a Turkish company with a strong reputation in airports management and concession. On the topline, TAV Airports has over 14 major airports under its management across three continents of the world.

Some of the airports under its management include- Istanbul Atatürk, Ankara Esenboga, Izmir Adnan Menderes, Milas-Bodrum and Gazipasa-Alanya Airports in Turkey, Tbilisi and Batumi Airports in Georgia, Monastir and Enfidha-Hammamet Airports in Tunisia, Skopje and Ohrid Airports in Macedonia, Medinah Airport in Saudi Arabia and Zagreb Airport in Croatia.

One of the most remarkable feats achieved by TAV Airports was its ability to restart operations less than six hours after a major terrorist attacks at the Istanbul Atatürk. This points to the fact that the company is very efficient and well experienced in managing disaster, emergency and crisis management.

One of its bragging milestones is that in 2015, the company catered for 780,000 flights and more than 102 million passengers. Another big surprise about its success is that TAV Airports started the business in 1997 with its first bid for the management of Istanbul Atatürk Airports in Turkey. The successful bid saw  Tepe and Akfen Groups partnering to form a company that has now become Turkey’s ambassador in airports facility management.

To reach out to a global market and get more capital, TAV Airports did its initial public offering, IPO in 2007. In 2012, the company brought in a larger partner to get equity investment in the company, as a result of this, key shareholders in the company gave up 38 percent of TAV Airports’ to Aéroports de Paris.

The company has already indicated interest to manage the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. The bidding process is expected to be tough as the MMA Lagos is the busiest airport in Nigeria.

As the concession of Nigerian airports gets nearer, TAV Airports Holdings is definitely one of the companies to watch.

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