President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the new Terminal Building of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.The terminal has sixty-six check-in-counters, sixteen Immigration desks at arrival, twenty-eight Immigration desks at departure, and eight security screening points, among others.
Buhari said it would go a long way in contributing to the socio-political and economic prosperity of the country,He said the completion and delivery of five brand new international airport terminals since 2015, which were at 11% completion level then, aligns perfectly with the Aviation Roadmap.
The road map was developed in 2016, for the purposes of establishing critical infrastructure, including a National Carrier as well as maintenance, repairs and overhaul centre, and improved Airports Terminals through concession.
The President described as unprecedented the administration’s investments in inter-state rail connectivity, road networks, agriculture, power and telecommunications.
This was done despite limitations in resources.He the robust initiatives have been complemented with specific fiscal policies to drive aviation infrastructure renaissance.‘‘These include the designation of 4 airports, namely Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt as Free Trade Zones, in which customs duty is not applicable; removal of VAT on all forms of shared transportation, including air transportation; and exemption of commercial aircraft and spare parts from VAT payment.‘‘Similar projects at both the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and Port Harcourt International Airport were completed and commissioned by this administration and our people have since been benefiting from the positive economic impacts of those magnificent terminals.
‘‘The one in Kano has also been completed, and will be commissioned soon, while work continues apace to complete that of Enugu shortly,’’ he said. He added that the improvement in Lagos terminal would increase airport operations and management services to about 14 million passengers per annum, create 3,000 direct and indirect jobs, increase inflow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and exponential growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).