BY USMAN SALAMI -When she assumed duty at the country's aviation ministry years ago, Princess Stella Oduah did not mince words in letting Nigerians in on her agenda for the sector. Put together, she articulated her programmes to rescue the fast deteriorating state of affairs in that sector in tandem with the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.
In doing that, Oduah told Nigerians that having a good transportation service including air, road and sea, is essential to the growth of any economy because it boosts trade in both goods and services.
At an event in Abuja last year, the minister underscored the foregoing by identifying the connect between the sector's core business and other sectors of the nation's economy.
"Sustainable agricultural growth is crucial for poverty alleviation and the promotion of rural transformation in Africa. This vital role can be achieved by making agriculture a core part of Nigeria's development policy at regional, national and international level. Smallholder farmers particularly women and youth are key actors in the African agricultural sector. Africa relies heavily on food aid and food import," she said at the event.
But that was the challenge which Oduah set out to confront in the Nigerian Aviation industry that in recent years had traditionally been a passenger-focused sector operating and focusing its business model on proceeds from passenger air travel.
"We would need to let go of this orthodox business doctrine and imbibe new business models that have the ability to meet the demands of travellers as well as that of the global supply chain and economic development. With the world fast becoming a global marketplace and with different industries such as the banking and telecommunications sector reshaping their business models to include more energized and profitable business expansions, there is the need for all economic sectors to revise their business models in order to accommodate more profitable channels," she had advised.
In Oduah's view, the lack of infrastructure in the aviation sector would be tackled as a business opportunity rather than looking at it only as hindrance to development. The end-result was to create an enabling environment that would not only cater for agricultural exports, but would also drive economic empowerment and rural development through various economic sectors.
The establishment of cargo terminals would create an enabling environment for agricultural export. This, in turn, will create room for wide scale agricultural production, and brings technology and large scale infrastructure to rural areas.
The minister's averred plan in this direction has continued to attract public comments most of which thumb up the modest results of her transformation agenda in the sector. These, according to observers, are anchored on what she aptly describes as the aerotropolis concept.
According to Ariyo Akinfenwa, Principal Strategist at Media Age Communications, not too long ago, Daily Trust newspaper reported in its editorial that the Ministry of Aviation has vigorously been pushing its concept of enhancing the contributions of Nigeria's 22 airports to the nation's economy. Some 16 or 73 per cent of these airports are officially classified as "perishable." And the ministry's preferred vehicle for this enterprise is the aerotropolis concept, a relatively new urban and social development initiative in which the adjoining area to an airport, extending to as much as 25-kilometre radius, is transformed from the traditional isolated location to serve as a hub around which aviation-related businesses and commercial ventures, can operate profitably," he said.
Advocating the idea during a recent visit to the corporate offices of Media Trust Limited, publishers of Daily Trust and sister publications, the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, eulogized the concept as offering gilded prospects for changing the story of Nigeria's aviation industry.
In her submission, she was effusive about how application of the concept would avail the nation's airports of sparkling five-star hotels, glittering housing estates, auto and other technical repair shops, new world-class medical facilities and services as well as recreational facilities, among many other benefits.
In specific terms, the Nigerian aerotropolis project is expected to earn for the country the admittedly impressive annual revenue of 100 billion naira, and provide jobs for at least 10 million Nigerians.
In countries where the aerotropolis has been operational, the dividends have been tremendous, Oduah noted. For instance, Amsterdam's Schipol Airport in the Netherlands, which is an active aerotropolis, has over 2,000 companies and more than 58,000 people at work on its grounds. Munich Airport in Germany, another active aerotropolis, has a wide complement of facilities that include a full service hospital, a full service grocery store, swimming pool, and open-air forum that serves as a concert venue. Africa is not left out in the parade with South Africa taking the lead. Already in April, the South African city of Ekurilieni near Johannesburg hosted the world airport cities conference.
Seen from the success stories of the aerotropolis movement the world over, the concept qualifies for attention and actualization in Nigeria. However, given that numerous projects of similar appeal as the aerotropolis concept have been launched in the past, only to end up as white elephants, this project should be considered with caution, so that it does not end up as another drainpipe on the economy. Immediate examples include the export processing zones (EPZs) which were launched with considerable expectations, but which in operation are yet to justify their huge price tags. The point has often been made that many of such projects are usually conceived with commendable, even patriotic convictions, but suffer poor implementation due to factors that include the neglect of the socio-economic attributes of their locations.
Against the experience of the nation with such projects, the aerotropolis scheme can do with due attention to the factors that made similar ones fail in the past, in order to assure its success. For instance, a major success factor for the aerotropolis project is that it has to be essentially private sector driven, since in this country, committing public funds into any business venture is seemingly, traditionally programmed against yielding profit. Only private sector involvement usually facilitates profit generation and thereby guarantees the sustainability of projects. Beyond this however, it would be advisable that at any stage in the conception, implementation and operation of the aerotropolis project, the expedience of inclusive budgeting be adopted, whereby all the organs at the relevant tiers of government, as well as the various arms be availed room to participate.
Given the dire need of the nation for efficacious catalysts to stimulate the economy, the promise of the aerotropolis concept should be explored, even on face value. It must be a huge leap forward where some, if not all of Nigeria's airports are transformed from their present non-viable status into vibrant hubs of economic activity.
This is where the ministry needs to get its act together to ensure that the nation is not hoodwinked and shortchanged through one more wasteful gamble with public funds, this time in the name of aerotropolis.
•Salami writes from Lagos (c) 2014 The Sun Publishing Limited. All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company
http://callcenterinfo.tmcnet.com/news/2014/01/21/7640492.htm
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