Relocating FAAN to Lagos Will Save N500 Million—Keyamo
Festus Keyamo, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has stated categorically that the decision to move FAAN’s headquarters from Abuja to Lagos will not be reversed.
This is moving forward. According to the minister, “the directive has been given” during Wednesday’s TV programme.
Northern groups, including the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), and Senator Ali Ndume of Borno South had previously opposed the actions taken by FAAN and the CBN, claiming that they were an effort to marginalise the north.
But Keyamo noted that, given the present economic and operational realities, it is now essential to relocate the airport authority’s headquarters.
According to Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, relocating FAAN’s headquarters will prevent the waste of half a billion naira on plane tickets for Authority personnel who must travel between Abuja and Lagos.
Top FAAN officials and aviation unions addressed the minister about moving the authority’s head headquarters to Lagos for operational efficiency, according to the minister.
I take the decision; it’s a decision under the purview of a ministry,” President Bola Tinubu responded when asked if he was aware of the decision or not.
Among the seven aviation agencies in the nation, he added, only one is having its headquarters relocated from Abuja to Lagos.
Hadi Sirika relocated the aviation agencies’ headquarters from Lagos to Abuja in 2020, but Keyamo claims that the major officers, including directors and departments under them, were not adequately provided for.
He made it clear that the location of the decision-makers is not dependent on factors such as the number of employees or the size of the building, but rather on other factors.
The directorate is in Abuja, he added, but there are no support staff there. Of the 132 employees total, more than 100 are in Lagos.
Keyamo claimed that the lack of digitization at FAAN is a major contributing factor; as a result, they spent half a billion naira on airfare between Abuja and Lagos in only one year.
You can observe that they travel to and from Abuja daily just to have a single file signed. They make daily flights in both directions. They spent over half a billion naira on plane tickets in a year. “Only plane tickets cost N450 million,” he claimed.