TheCable

The house of representatives says $90.5 million is lost yearly in Nigeria due to unfavourable concession deals in the aviation sector.

Speaking on Tuesday in Abuja, Daniel Asuquo, chairman of the ad-hoc committee investigating the governing lease of federal government-owned assets, said non-transparent and poorly executed lease arrangements have hampered economic growth and infrastructure development in the country.

“Regrettably, the federal government is losing over $90.5 million annually due to the shoddy agreements between the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and its concessionaire at both local and international wings of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos,’’ NAN quoted him to have said.

“On an average, the Nigerian economy has lost over $5.7 billion from unfavourable and non-transparent federal government concession and lease agreements since its inception.”

He recalled that there was an official 2021 report on the refusal of concessionaires to honour their agreements on land lease shop rents, concessions and on build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangements.

According to him, some of the agreements with the concessionaires made up of traders, vendors and tenants at the airports have elapsed for more than five years without renewal.

He lamented that these concessionaires have either not been paying rates or have been paying rates below the current going rates in airports across the world.

“A similar situation obtains in the maritime sector where the Nigerian government has concessioned 26 ports to private companies,” Asuquo said.

“The tenures of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) concession agreements range from 15 to 25 years and the revenue to government from the concessions is estimated at over $6.54 billion over the period.

“However, joint venture (JV) companies have allegedly only realised $3 billion since 2005.”

The chairman said the committee would ascertain if due process was followed in the concession agreements and ensure that subsequent deals follow due process.

It would ensure that the FG is not short-changed under the agreements by tracking payments into the concession account.

He also said the committee would find out if the concessionaires were fulfilling their own obligations in the agreements, especially regarding servicing and maintenance of assets.