The perishable agro-cargo airport project launched in 2013 as part of efforts to diversify the Nigerian economy, grow national earnings and boost GDP contributions from the aviation and agricultural sectors has suddenly been confined to scrap heap.
Nigeria was to leverage the more than N250 billion annual air freight export market out of Africa. While countries like Kenya, South Africa, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Egypt are actively trading commodities like fruits, fresh fish, vegetables and flowers and earning millions of dollars, Nigeria -which also produces all this in abundance- lacks the infrastructure to compete. So Nigeria has watched helplessly as European, Asian and American cargo aircraft continue to import tons of cargo daily, only to fly out with empty holds.
In a bid to stem this imbalance, Nigeria’s government designated 13 cities as pilot cities for perishable cargo airports. The airports in these cities were to be developed with international standard perishable cargo storage and export facilities to enhance their operations.
According to an industry source who was involved in the conceptualisation of the project, the government of president Muhammadu Buhari, which inherited the project, has refused to make any financial commitment towards the continuation of the project.
The source explains that “the perishable cargo project suffered severe neglect because of the initial decision of the incumbent government to jettison the project. Buhari was made to believe that everything about the airport remodelling projects of former President Jonathan was immersed in fraud, and this thinking extended to the perishable cargo terminal projects.”
Source: sunnewsonline.com