Bi-Courtney Built MMA2 Terminal Without Approval–FAAN...Increased Cost From 3.9B To 38B

— January 21, 2014

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services ltd (BASL) are on a war path again over the approval for the Bi-Courtney Terminal design.

The FAAN said it disagrees with a report credited to Bi-Courtney Aviation Services which stated that “the design of the terminal building of the Murtala Muhammed Airport (Domestic Terminal 2) was approved by the federal government and FAAN after due consultation with their consultants.”

According to BASL, “The FAAN was involved at every stage of the redesign and redevelopment of the project.”

However, according to the spokesman of aviation agencies, Yakubu Dati, in a statement made available to journalists in Lagos at the weekend, that is not a true representation of the facts.

“We wish to state categorically and for the umpteenth time that nothing could be further from the truth. The design that the FAAN approved was for a terminal costing a total of N3.9 billion.

“However, without approval from FAAN, Bi-Courtney went ahead, of its own volition, to build a terminal different from the one originally approved by the FAAN, the cost of which it put at N38 billion, nearly 10 times the approved cost.

“There was no way the FAAN could have approved a terminal at a cost of N38 billion for a 12 year -concession because it did not make economic sense.

“We hereby urge members of the public, especially aviation stakeholders, to disregard that bogus claim by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services which we believe was designed to deceive members of the public as usual,” he said.

The FAAN and BASL have been involved in a battle of wits over the concession agreement of  the MMA2 Terminal building built on the private-public venture agreement of build, operate and transfer basis. Some of the contentious issues include the number of years in which  BASL would manage the complex as well as the amount spent on the project.

The FAAN also believed that the concession was skewed in favour of the BASL, an issue that has resulted in litigations in the law courts.