In Nigeria, the government has approved another phase of its airport modernization program by ordering a $615 million investment in infrastructure and security equipment.
This amount is, among other things, earmarked for work on Terminal B at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the construction of command and control centers at the country's main airports, as well as the purchase of navigation aids and spare parts.
This new investment follows the announcement by the Minister of Civil Aviation, Festus Keyamo, last week of a total reconstruction program for the former terminal at Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos. According to him, the initiative aims to bring the platform up to international standards and increase its capacity to 20 million passengers per year.
Ahead of these two programs, the government had approved several other projects as part of an ongoing roadmap to modernize the country’s international airports, which, in addition to the two mentioned above, also include airports in Enugu, Port Harcourt, and Kano. The master plan includes the digitalization of services, with the installation of new scanners, magnetic security gates, and self-check-in kiosks capable of printing boarding passes. On May 1, the country launched the e-Visa service and electronic entry and exit cards, in line with the planned reforms.
According to the authorities, these plans aim to improve the performance of the aforementioned airports, which handle increasingly large flows of travelers due to the boom in domestic traffic, stimulated by the growing number of local airlines and the emergence of a middle class. This has impacted the quality of services at these platforms. Although they are among the busiest in Africa, the Lagos and Abuja complexes have not appeared in the Skytrax World Airport Awards rankings for several years. This UK-based award evaluates the traveler experience through various airport services and key performance indicators such as: check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping, security, immigration, and departures from the airport.
