Aviation ministry, agencies peg N4bn for accommodation

The Federal Ministry of Aviation and its agencies will spend N4 billion for procuring the corporate headquarters building and staff accommodation in Abuja.

The agencies include the Nigeria Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB).

All the agencies have recently relocated their headquarters to Abuja following the directive by the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.

The N4bn allocated for provision of accommodation for staff of the Ministry and its agencies is contained in the details of the 2021 budget recently presented by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Ministry and four agencies including NAMA, AIB, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria and Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) are to spend N89.9bn on capital projects.

The ongoing construction of the second runway of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja got N14bn.

Sirika had in a letter dated 4th May, 2020 FMA/PMD/7061/T/4 and signed by the Director, Human Resource Management, Alhaji Mohammad Shehu gave the agencies 45 days to relocate their headquarters from Lagos to Abuja.

According to the Minister, the relocation order was premised on the current global economic situation and the need to reduce cost of governance.

But aviation workers through their unions said while they are not against the directive, all issues of welfare must be addressed before the relocation. However, 45 days after the directive, all the agencies relocated to Abuja.

Despite the relocation, the majority of workers remain in Lagos which have now been converted to headquarters annexes.

The workers are demanding the payment of allowances which run into billions of naira in line with the provisions of the conditions of service before relocating.