Airport Concession: Keep Faith in my Administration, Okowa Urges Deltans 

Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has urged Deltans to keep faith with his administration as he was elected to govern the state in their best interest.

The governor stated this while accenting to the 3 Bills establishing new universities in the state on Thursday, February 25, 2021 in Government House, Asaba.

Speaking on the concession of the Asaba International Airport, he said, “we have been able to build the airport to the stage it is today and we thank the administration of former Gov. Emmanuel Uduaghan for the vision of building the airport.

“Due to competing needs, it’s not possible for the state to continue with the development of the airport. We are beginning to spend more than we are able to get from the airport.

“We went through a very rigorous process in getting a Transaction Advisor who led us through the bidding process before arriving at the consortium that won the bid.

“Obviously it’s a lot of input that is expected from them and in the next three to five years, we will begin to reap the benefits of the decision.

“Rather than making losses to the Concessionaire, beyond bringing the airport to our dreams, they are to pay the sum of N100 million yearly and 2.5 per cent of their annual turnover as royalty to the state.

“Deltans should trust the government they have voted into power even though we appreciate that people are entitled to their opinions.

“We will continue to stand on the side of our people to do the right thing in their interest,” he stated.

Giving more insight into the concession of the Asaba airport, Senior Policy Adviser to the Governor, Prof. Sylvester Monye, said that the decision, which took five years to achieve, was to turn Asaba into a commercial hub.

Monye who spoke at a Press Briefing of Journalists later on, said that under the concession agreement, the state government would get N43 billion as royalty, in addition to about N80 billion the government would also earn from the exercise as revenue.

He disclosed that the loss hitherto being incurred by the state government in running the airport had now translated into an asset through the concession.

While saying that no state in the country had the financial capacity to run an airport, the governor’s aide stated that the concessionaire “has all it takes to effectively and efficiently run an airport to international standard”.