Facts emerge on why Kotoka International Airport Terminal 3 became ECOWAS hub
Like the saying goes, ‘What you put is what you get’, additional financial facts have emerged on why Ghana’s Kotoka International Airport Terminal 3 won the hearts of international aviation investors and leading global carriers as their best bet in aviation business in West Africa.
Lead in the fact is the volume of fund sunk in the design and delivery of the Ghanaian Terminal which was about $275m compared to a total of $600m used to upgrade three Nigerian major international airports including the four new international terminals in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt airports.
Though the Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr Saleh Dunoma, said the four new international terminals in Abuja, Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt airports are cost effective, industry analysts aver that inability of the federal government to raise the international design and standards of the four terminals with higher budget collapsed the targeted interests of aviation investors into taking Nigeria as their hub.
According to FAAN boss, the four projects were being funded through 500 million dollars loan from the Export-Import Bank of China (China EximBank) with counterpart funding of 100 million dollars from the Nigerian government.
The experts queried where Dunoma got the statistics to say that newly built Kotoka International Airport terminal 3 had a handling capacity of 5 million passengers annually and the claims that it’s still lower in capacity to the Port Harcourt terminal which will handle seven million annually.
In his claims, Dunoma argued that “When the Kotoka Airport terminal was commissioned in September 2018, a lot of ill-informed Nigerians went on social media to lambast their father land.”
“At the cost of 600 million dollars joint funding for the four terminals in Nigeria, it is comparatively more cost-effective than the single terminal in Accra at a cost of 275 million dollars,” he said.
Dunoma said that with the commencement of operations by ASKY Airlines from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; and Lufthansa set to commence from Port Harcourt International Airport, two of the four terminals were being utilised.
FAAN noted that with the facilities on ground at both the Port Harcourt and Abuja airports, more airlines were expected to indicate interest in flying to those airports.
