FAAN MD Chairs Committee On Diversification Of Revenue Sources

Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Saleh Dunoma

In a bid to diversify sources of airport authority’s revenue, the managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Saleh Dunoma, has stated that a committee chaired by him has been set up to draw up plans to boost revenue generation.

The committee’s focus will be centered on exploring the non-aeronautical sources of revenue generation.

Speaking to newsmen in Lagos, Dunoma assured that the committee is made up of the relevant directorates and departments responsible for revenue generation for FAAN.

According to him, airport administrators outside the African continent had keyed to non-aeronautical revenue sources.

He stated that other airport authorities on the continent were also deliberating on how to increase their non-aeronautical revenue services, which he said formed the theme of this year’s Airports Council International (ACI) held in Egypt.

Dunoma noted that the development of the agency’s airport infrastructure is the only way to achieve the diversification of revenue generation and tap into the myriad of opportunities in the system

“What we intend to do is to diversify our revenue sources. In Africa, we have not tapped into non-aeronautical sources and we are encouraging African airports to look at non-aeronautical revenue sources of revenue because aeronautical sources of revenues have limitations; they are highly dependent on flight operations.

“The non-aeronautical revenues are being developed so much that they can be in pari passu with the aeronautical sources of revenues. This is what we want African airports to develop. Some papers were presented to guide African airports to develop that area.

“As a matter of fact I set up a team on revenue generation and this team is chaired by me. It is very sensitive to the survival of African airports, especially FAAN. We started the meeting today (Wednesday) and we will continue to meet every week until we get to where we want to be.

“We have not come up with a target yet, but the committee will come up with that. There are lots of departments involved, including engineering and commercial. By the time we develop some projects, we will have revenue targets that we want to achieved. This will be done by the committee,” he said.

In his optimism, the MD stated that before the end of 2019, aviation security (AVSEC) personnel would have been approved to bear arms in order to increase their surveillance of the airports.

However, he said that some trainings and approvals especially from the National Security Adviser (NSA) would be required to achieve this adding that background checks would be done on some of the personnel before the approval.

“There are certain projects that we need to implement before we can start carrying arms. Number one, we have to get the arms. Number two, we have to store the ammunitions somewhere. We need to embark on projects that will enable us to have storage somewhere at the airport. Number three, we need to profile and train.

“It is not everybody that will bear arms. This, we must apply. We cannot train ourselves. We have to be trained by those that have been long in the system; the State Security Service and the Nigeria police. Also, we want to make sure that we get certification from the office of the National Security Adviser. We have to go through these processes. As soon as we are through with all these, they can then be allowed to carry arms. We intend to do this before the end of the year,” he said.