The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has emphasised that public-private partnerships are essential for the sustainability of the aviation sector.
Keyamo shared this perspective during a recent YouTube interview on O’tega Ogra’s “Unfiltered: The Big Interview”, where he discussed his plans for infrastructure and capacity-building in the aviation sector.
He noted that, currently, there is no infrastructure ministry with the capacity to undertake large-scale projects such as maintaining airports to meet international standards. Therefore, a public-private partnership is the most viable solution.
Keyamo also highlighted that for local airlines to remain commercially viable and sustainable, both the private and public sectors must collaborate to ensure that Nigerian travellers are not overly dependent on foreign airlines.
He also noted that because the sector runs a deficit budget system, embarking on large-scale projects is almost an impossibility, which is why he stressed the essence of the public-private partnership.
He said, “It’s a multipronged approach we have to that issue because it’s not just one approach that will solve that problem. One, you want to make sure they survive, they are viable commercially and then of course you want to ensure that the flying public also has the best deal in terms of pricing of tickets. Now you just mentioned one of them, to support them, make sure they survive, support their bid to get to challenge on International routes so that we don’t leave our International routes at the mercy of foreign airlines who come here to exploit our people.
“There is no ministry now that is an infrastructure ministry that has the capacity by the envelope system to develop those big projects. The envelope system means the budgeting process because we are always running a deficit budget, so if we’re running a deficit budget how are we going to ensure that we carry out those big projects? It’s not possible by the budgeting system so those infrastructure ministries are FCT, Works, Housing, Blue Economy, Aviation, and maybe one or two others. Those are the infrastructure ministries.
“It is only by way of PPPs we can progress along that line, we can turn things around. So for those who complain that our infrastructure is decrepit, the airports are not as good as they should be, they don’t meet international standards, I’ve just been eight months in office; there’s nobody who can build big infrastructure within even two years or 3 years; and that’s a fact. What you can do is to maintain what you have, make them a bit comfortable and serviceable and customer friendly while you work on the big issues.”
He added “We are looking at bringing in the private sector, which we have started doing already with the collaboration of the minister of interior, we both collaborated on that, we have changed the arrival wing, the D-wing of the International Airport. Shell came in and did a lot for us there, I’m sure you have seen it. That’s a beautiful entrance now into Nigeria. The wing E, that’s the arrival, we are concentrating on D and E and we are talking to one or two people now, corporate bodies, they are just about to start their own but Shell has done their own for us.
“They are about to start on Wing D for both departure and arrival and of course the the arrival of Wing-E because we have just done the departure of Wing-E. So, those are the low-hanging fruits we are looking at just to turn things around. The bigger picture is that we need to turn these terminal buildings into proper hubs and that would mean a complete reconstruction of most of these international airports.
He stressed that to improve the efforts of the ministry, a re-orientation of the workers is imperative.
“For the low-hanging fruits, how do we maintain what we have seen on the ground? First of all, we are trying to change the attitude of the civil servants who are supposed to run these airports, we’re trying to change their mentality. I’ve said in another program that most of them are not primed by their training, by their bicycle-like attitude, even by the motivation they give to them, the kind of salaries they receive they’re not primed to raise their game and make these airports as customer-friendly as they should be.
Speaking further, the minister highlighted his five-point agenda for regulatory changes and plans for the aviation sector in line with the renewed agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
He said, “The first of course would be safety because this industry is all about the safety of the travelling public and so our first point agenda is that we should enforce strict compliance with our regulations. In other words, as a minister, I should be able to supervise the regulatory agencies so they strictly comply with and enforce their safety standards to the extent that we move up the ratings in IA because the international civil aviation organisation rates you and rates a country in accordance with how they enforce their regulations, their safety standards and all of that. So that’s our first agenda.
“The second one of course will be to improve infrastructure across the country. We know that the size of the country, the travelling public we have, the kind of economy we have, and the ambition we have as a people, do not match the type of infrastructure we see at our airports. So yes, we are still not proud of the type of infrastructure we have, compared to world standards, global standards that we see all over the world where we travel. So, that of course is the second objective that we
set for ourselves.
“The third one will be to support our local operators. Over the years, there has been no deliberate government policy, they might have been doing it silently but previous governments have not brought it to the fore that, let us have it as a focal point that we should support local operators and ensure that they survive, their businesses survive and hold them to the best international standards.”
He added, “If you look at the history of the aviation industry in Nigeria we have had a very high mortality rate of Airlines. I don’t know whether you are old enough or those listening are old enough, but for those who are old enough to know in the last 40, 50 years, more than 100 Airlines, I mean 100 have come and gone. They just died. From Okada to Concord to Zenith Airline, to Chachangi to Bellview to ADC I can keep reeling out names. They just came and died. Then we began to ask the question why did they go under? Many of them within a short period and I felt it was time for the government to put them in focus, on how we can support them to survive.
“The fourth one will be to enhance capacity, train and retrain our personnel within the aviation sector, be it the engineers, the instructors, the regulators, just human capacity development within the aviation sector. The fifth one will be to ramp up revenues, not as much as imposing more burden on the travelling public but to also plug all leakages, all loopholes and to ensure that we maximise our potential to raise revenues. So these are the five areas we put in focus as we took over the office and we have been religiously, consensuously assiduously pursuing this 5-point agenda.”
In addition, he stressed that as the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, his emphasis on the security of lives cannot be overemphasised.
“There are some of our actions you have seen recently regarding the safety of the Nigerian public, taking no chance, I mean that is our policy. We think that’s our philosophy behind that. I mean we take no chance. Some people have been trying to educate me about interference. Looking at the provisions of the law and I was laughing, I said look, do you know the law more than myself?
“For me as Minister, I take no chance when it comes to the safety of the flying public, I am responsible to Nigerians not to so-called experts who are in their homes. It is Nigerians I took an oath of office to be responsible to, and to my employers and I must serve them diligently and not listen to rumbles coming from some corrupt elements behind me I will not do that, so long as my push, so long as my insistence is that look, enforce your regulations, there must be strict compliance with regulations, make sure we are safe.
“So long as I’m within that precinct or pushing towards that end I’ve done nothing wrong. If my interference in quotes is to say ‘No, water down your regulations, please don’t ban them so much, don’t be too strict on them, if that is the case then you can blame me.
