Considering issues bordering on claims and counter claims on Turkey’s closeness to extremists and series of illegal arms imports from same country in recent times, several Nigerians who spoke to Business Hilights have expressed reservations over the signal given by the Ministry of Aviation that a leading Turkish group is highly interested in bidding for Nigerian key international airports for management.
Sources have hinted that Turkey’s biggest airport operator, TAV Havalimanlari Holding AS, is planning to bid for concession contracts for four airports in Nigeria.
The Istanbul-based company, majority owned by Aeroports de Paris, has already submitted a non-binding bid for the airports, which include the MMIA and NAIA, according to a Bloomberg report, quoting people close to the development, who asked not to be named because the plan is not public.
One of the sources said the company was also considering capital expenditures in some of the four airports if it won the contract.
“I know TAV has made a presentation, but I can’t confirm at this moment if they formally submitted any offer,” a spokesman at the Ministry of Aviation, James Odaudu, told Bloomberg by telephone.
He also hinted that companies from the UK, Germany and Nigeria had also expressed interest in operating the four airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.
However, appointed transaction consultants will advise on the timing for formal bidding as well as on a plan to start a national carrier, Odaudu stated.
TAV operates more than a dozen airports, including Turkey’s largest, Istanbul Ataturk. It is seeking to add more airports abroad to its portfolio to compensate for the termination of the concession agreement for Ataturk, its biggest revenue earner, at the end of 2020.
Besides, the Ministry of Aviation confirmed earlier in the week that companies from the United Kingdom, Germany and Nigeria had submitted bids to operate the airports even as the said Turkish group is yet to submit bid.
Federal Government had made it clear, amidst serious objection by trade unions, that the four leading international airports are up for grabs by the highest bidders in a concession arrangement.
The airports are the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja; Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano; and Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State.
