Management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said the target of an estimated 50.4 per cent increase in its revenue generation could yield the agency it proposed Revenue Budget of N188 billion in 2022.
The figure super cedes the previous N125.4 revenue the country’s airports management body approved for the year 2021, the Managing Director of FAAN, Capt. Rabiu Yadudu told a team of the national assembly legislators who were on an oversight visit to the Lagos airport over the weekend.
The MD disclosed the FAAN was not immuned to the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected airports revenue affirming that recovery to pre-COVID status may take between three and four years, Yadudu said “At the moment, the Passenger Traffic is still about 56 per cent of Pre-COVID traffic. Nonetheless, the year 2021 was a better year when compared with 2020. even though FAAN does not have operating surplus, the authority had to remit N16.7 Billion to the Federation Account as contribution to the Consolidated Revenue Fund as at the end of December 2021, for the year 2021 alone”
He told the legislators that “the authority is proposing a Revenue Budget of N188 Billion for the year 2022 as against N125.4 billion approved for the year 2021, this gives an increase of 50.4 per cent. This projection was arrived at with the hope that the effect of the pandemic would have been over thereby leading to an increase in passenger traffic, as well as boost in the non-aeronautical revenue base of the Authority as already highlighted in the 2021 Budget performance.”
Captain Yadudu explained that the authority has shifted its focus from the aeronautical sources of revenue to the non-aeronautical so as to further improve the revenue performance.
He said “Aggressive sensitization is going on with respect to areas at the airports where investors can come in. Specific areas where effort is being focused on include: Advertisement, car parks, Private Airport Terminal operators and Bi-Courtney (BOT) revenue sources.
On advertisement, the Authority is taking steps to terminate the non-performing concession agreements and engage new concessionaires. We hope to make significant progress before the end of 2nd quarter. Car parks Automation at the various Airports is presently ongoing, before the end of the year we should have achieved a great result.”
“On the Private Airport Terminals, stiff sanctions are going to be applied for non-payment for various services rendered by FAAN.”