Nigeria has lost $5.7bn to shady concessions, PPP projects – Reps

…Says FG losing $90.5M annually from Lagos Airport BOT deal

By Tordue Salem

Over 5.7billion has been lost to Public-Private Projects, PPP and property concession deals in the country, in the last few years, the House of Representatives disclosed on Tuesday.

Besides, the legislators also revealed that  government, is losing over $90million to the Build-Operate-and-Transfer deal between aviation agencies and private investors.

The Lawmakers made the separate disclosures,  at an Inaugural meeting of the “Ad hoc Committee to Investigate the Governing Lease of Federal Government-Owned Assets”, headed by Rep. Daniel Asuquo(PDP-Cross River).

“Categories of public infrastructure that benefit from PPP include power generation plants, power transmission distribution network, roads and bridges, sea ports, airports, railways, inland container depots, logistics hubs et cetera.

“Beautiful as these may sound, it has been discovered overtime that the realization of the federal Government’s objective, may become a tall order if appropriate checks and balances are not put in place by way of oversight.

“A case in point is that of the Murtala Muhammed Domestic Airport Terminal 2 (MMAZ), the domestic terminal of the international airport situated in Lagos and its ancillary facilities which were developed under a BOT agreement. 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”.

“Also in the Aviation Sector, in March 2021, the Secretary General of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP) lamented in a document addressed to the Minister of Aviation, the blatant refusal of concessionaires to honour their agreements on land lease shop rentages, concessions and on BOT arrangements.

Some of the agreements with the concessionaires made up of Traders, Vendors and Tenants at the Airports have elapsed for more than five (5) years without renewal.

“In effect, the 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 in Nigeria to private companies. The tenures of the NPA concession agreements range from 15 to 25 years and the estimated…