The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has urged the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to focus 70 percent of its investment on the provision of critical aeronautical infrastructure for the aviation industry in order to improve the security and safety of the airports.
The lawmakers also asked the agency to begin preparation for the future by saving for the rainy days so as to avoid a situation like that of the Covid-19 pandemic, whereby the agency had challenges with funding and meeting other necessary needs.
Nnolim Nnaji, Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, while speaking during a tour of the Lagos airport on Tuesday promised that the national assembly will protect the interest of industry in the parliament.
He added that the provisions of the new aviation industry bill before the house will when passed be friendly to both staff of the agency, the industry, and the airline operators affirming that without the airlines, there will be no FAAN and verse versa.
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Nnolim said “l believe that whatever investment FAAN will do, they should put 70 percent of the investment in providing infrastructure. That is the path we should tow now.
“You have to find how to put up a strategy on how to focus on the safety and security of the airports. What is important for airline operators is to land in a safe airport with good security, good runways, airfields lightening, and operational perimeter fence that guarantees the safety and insurance of their aircraft.”
Speaking no the effects of the recent Covid-19 pandemic on the operations of the agency, the lawmaker explained that “the essence of preparing for the future just happened to us. Let your future begin today. You have to prepare for any situation. Nobody expected this kind of situation we find ourselves but it is a lesson to all of us that we have to prepare for any eventuality and in doing so, we need to go into aggressive infrastructure development in areas of non-aeronautical aspects of the industry”
While promising to support the industry with necessary legislation, he said the house will push for the retention of the 25 percent remittance FAAN pay into the consolidated account of the federation to enable them to put in place a ten-year developmental plan and use the funds to build critical infrastructure for the aviation industry.
