FG sets up airport concession c’ttee

The Federal Government has commenced the concession process of the
nation’s major airports, with the inauguration of two committees.
The committees are Project Steering Committee and Project Delivery Committee, which were inaugurated on Wednesday by Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.
Performing the inauguration in his office, the Minister said the
Project Steering Committee with him as Chairman, is to provide the
general direction, and steer the course of Public Private Partnership
project concessions in the Aviation Sector.
He reiterated that the driving force behind the federal government’s
resolve to concession the airports was the over-riding national
interest in ensuring the establishment and sustenance of world class
standards in both infrastructural development and service delivery.
According to him, the misgivings some people have expressed
concerning the exercise was borne out of misconception that Concession
is synonymous with Privatization and explained that the institutions
being concessioned remained the properties of the federal government
and that more jobs will be generated at the end of the day.Among
subcommittees Terms of Reference are the Approval of technical,
financial and legal framework for the successful preparation and
execution of the concession, Provision of policy guidelines and
general direction on all matters relating to PPP and concession of
projects and programmers in the Aviation Sector, Consider and
facilitate necessary permits, clearances and carrying relevant
stakeholders along in the processing of PPP / Concession matters,
Approve action plans, budgets and financial requests submitted by the
Project Delivery Committee, and Serve as the final
decision-making body on PPP / Concession matters on air transport
generally.

Other members of the committee include: The Ministry’s Permanent
Secretary, relevant Chief Executive Officers, Director-General of the
Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Director of
Planning of the Ministry of-transportation, representatives of the
Ministries of Justice, Budget and National Planning, the Ministry of
Finance, and the Deputy Director of the PPPUnit in the Ministry who
will serve as the Secretary.

Similarly,the Aviation Minister of State inaugurated the Project
Delivery Committee with the charge on members to be diligent and
patriotic in the implementation of the decisions and policy guidelines
as approved by the Steering Committee, as their success or failure
would determine the fate of the whole process.