Why Opening New Abuja Airport Terminal May be Delayed

The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika said despite the tremendous work already done at the new terminal of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja its for business would be delayed. The minister, while inspecting the facility on Tuesday explained that one of the causes of the delay was a foundational issue which had altered the master plan of the airport. According to him, the planning of the project did not envisage that the building would lead to additional works, power and water supply. He said that it was also discovered that the building would block both the control and fire towers which would require relocation, so additional work was required to link it with the existing terminal as well as expanding the apron to accommodate bigger air planes.

He said that all the challenges would result to additional funding, remarking that the project is being funded through $500 million loan from Chinese EXIM Bank and $100 million counterpart funding from Nigerian government. “The contractor has told us some of the challenges he has been facing regarding some of the components of work and some additional works required for this project to be put into use. Unfortunately, some of these components are complex which would delay this job and some of them are from the foundation like that of the sewer and water. There is also the problem of the control tower blocking the access into the terminal apron and also the inadequate nature of the apron itself,” Sirika said.