Firm to Invest N9.7bn in Lagos Airport’s Ground Transport

• Firm to Invest N9.7bn in Lagos Airport’s Ground Transport

Elysium Integrated Development Company has submitted a proposal to invest about $27m (N9.7bn) in a mass transit ground transportation structure at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has said.

The minister was quoted to have said this on Tuesday, while inaugurating a project team for the construction of the proposed new office complex and staff quarters for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria in Abuja.

Sirika said the government had resolved to change the face of aviation in the country by putting in place all necessary facilities to enable agencies in the system to perform well.

He stated that it was an irony that FAAN that had the mandate of building and managing airports in the country did not have a befitting office complex in the FCT, while its employees lacked adequate and befitting residential quarters.

The minister said the decision to construct the office complex and residential quarters through a Public Private Partnership arrangement was to ensure that what would be delivered would be of a good quality and would give value for money spent.

He told the project team members to ensure that the most suitable designs for the office complex and staff quarters were delivered.

Among the team’s terms of reference is to identify and confirm the proposed location for the office complex and staff quarters, and recommend means through which the PPP can be fast-tracked.

The minister said membership of the team was drawn from the Ministry of Transportation (Aviation), FAAN, Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission, and the Federal ministries of Finance, Justice and Budget and Planning.

He stated that the team also had the mandate to source for, and identify prospective PPP partners, and charged them to consider an unsolicited proposal by a firm, Elysium Integrated Development Company, to invest $27m in a mass transit ground transportation structure at the Lagos airport.

The Managing Director, FAAN, Saleh Dunoma, who is also the leader of the project team, said the team would work with the minister on his commitment to addressing the infrastructure gap in the sector.

He pledged the team would be meticulous and swift in carrying out its assignment, adding that the mandate would be seen as a call to national service, which demanded commitment and efficiency.