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Re-certification of Abuja, Lagos airports ongoing-FAAN boss

FAAN

By John Okoh

Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu, has said the airport managers were on the verge of re-certifying the Murtala Muhammed and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airports Lagos and Abuja respectively stressing that the effects of the COVID-19 break also affected the recertification.

This is just as he has attributed the reduction of airports incursion including alleged theft at the airside to a dynamic airport security system that is functional and constantly evolving to meet clear and present threats.

Captain Yadudu made this known while announcing the Airports Council International (ACI-Africa) approved the maiden ACI-Africa Security Week with the theme: “Promotion of Security Culture in African Airports” to be celebrated across all member airports.

According to Yadudu, FAAN is also equally committed to certifying the airports at Enugu, Port Harcourt and Kano but stressed that the revenues dwindled due to the pandemic but assured that it was doing its best to remedy that.

Yadudu said, “We are on the verge of re-certifying Lagos and Abuja and we are equally committed to certifying Enugu, Port Harcourt and Kano airports, but there are various technical requirements and conditions involved that it is only when you are involved that you will fully appreciate the enormity of the work.

But, the fact that we did Lagos and Abuja, we will surely do the others. It is a commitment.

“The issue that slowed us down is the Covid-19 pandemic; suddenly, the whole world was grounded to a halt, not just FAAN or NCAA.

That unfortunately affected our revenues; it was down to about 2 to 3 per cent revenue at a time and we tried to survive it.

“Just yesterday, an ICAO instructor called me that they just started moving about two weeks ago. So, certification involving our team within Nigeria is working.

But the fact is that we are still in the Covid-19, even though it is now under control, but Covid-19 affected a lot of things that we had planned to do last year in our airports.

“In fact as of now, every Wednesday, our team meets with the NCAA team and every two days, the certification team of each airport meets.

We have a standing team working, they know the process and the extent they need to be working, but they had to wait for Covid-19 to go away.

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Ihesiulo Grace

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