A delegation from the Presidency in Freetown, Sierra Leone, has embarked on tour of some African countries that are deemed to have excelled in Public-Private Partnership (PPP), in a bid to redevelop its infrastructure, destroyed during the civil war that ended about 13 years ago, through the PPP scheme
The delegation, which started its tour from Nigeria, while on a facility visit to the Murtala Muhammed Airport Two (MMA2), operated by Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited (BASL), to understand the successes and challenges of the terminal, has described the situation of MMA2 as an irony.
To the six-man presidential team, that MMA2 is being stifled through various intrigues, despite being the first successful PPP in Nigeria, remains an irony.
Guided to the airport terminal by Mallam Adamu Umar, an official of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC); the Sierra Leonean Government team was led by Mr. Abu Kamara, coordinator of that country’s PPP Unit in the Office of The President.
A statement by Steve Omolale-Ajulo, spokesman of BASL, Chief said while speaking at the Conference Room of MMA2, Kamara told the management of BASL, led by Mr. Christophe Penninck, chief executive officer (CEO), , that his team chose the terminal to learn from BASL how it was running MMA2 successfully and its challenges.
Kamara, who expressed surprise that Bi-Courtney was sustaining the terminal despite the dwindling stream of revenue as a result of the redevelopment of another terminal a few metres away contrary to what was projected at inception, asked to know the magic.
The statement quoted the CEO as saying that BASL had devised various legitimate means to sustain itself in the face of dwindling revenue, adding that managing the terminal successfully required a lot of initiatives and “crazy ideas”.
Ms. Adebisi Awoniyi, chief operating officer, informed the team that “the core revenue generating stream is supposed to be from aeronautic but, we have a slight dilution with what is going on next door, that is, the redevelopment of another terminal. What that means is the fact that we now have to be creative and look at other non-aeronautic revenues to sustain ourselves. That is why we try to make sure that the terminal is commercially viable, slightly independent of the aeronautical stream of revenue…”