… Nigerian laws on cargo exportation/importation not world-friendly -stakeholders

L-R: Hicham W. Habre, Tech Manager, Craneburg; Ola Daramola, SA to Gov on Works; Chief Babajide Olatunde-Agbeja; Engr. Ade Akinsanmi, Commissioner for Works, Ogun State; Dapo Oduwole D-G PPP Ogun State; Amb. Ikechi Uko, organiser Chinet; Engr. Benedict Adeyileka, former Ag Director General NCAA and Mohammad Itani, Resource Manager, DAR.

The Ogun Agro Cargo Airport has won the award for Concept and Design of a state airport in Nigeria at the second edition of the Chinet Aviation and Cargo Conference held at the Lagos Marriott Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, recently.

In the same vein, stakeholders at the conference commended the Ogun State government for building a state-of-the art airport to address the agrocargo challenge confronting the export of goods and agro products in the country.

The state airport, described as the fastest built cargo airport in Nigeria, was started in April 2021 and is billed to commence operations before the end of December 2022.

Last year, the Commissioner of Finance and the Chief Economic Adviser to Ogun State Governor, Dapo Okubadejo, who attended the 2021 edition engaged stakeholders and aviation experts on the inherent economic benefits of the airport to the South West region and the country in general.

Okubadejo had promoted the airport as a great option for Nigerian and foreign investors and a robust engagement with stakeholders he had promised to produce a Smart Airport within a year.

Now a promise that was delivered and the Commissioner of Works and Infrastructure, Ogun State, Engineer Ade Akinsanya, led the state delegation to Chinet 2022 to showcase a completed airport.

The agrocargo airport he said is strategically located within an aerotropolis, the airport city at Ilishan, Remo along the Lagos–Ibadan expressway and Sagamu, Benin expressway.

The airport city also has close proximity to key industrial and agro-economic clusters within the state including Sagamu and Ijebu-Ode and other south western states.

Akinsanya stated that agro-cargo airport activities will be supported by a distribution and logistics hub located within the airport city.

According to him, the airport has proximity to key agro-economic clusters with cash crop plantations and forest reserves, such as the Apoje Oil Palm Farms, Ilushin Estate, Remo Rubber Plantation and Lomiro Oil Palm Plantation.

The newly established African Development Bank (AfDB) testing centre is nearby and will process goods slated for export.

He added that the agro cargo airport is 15 minutes from the Sagamu industrial and manufacturing hub, with firms such as OLAM, Nestle, Flour Mills, Apple & Peers, International Breweries, Chi Farms, Coleman Cable located in the hub.

He stated that the airport is 30 minutes from the federal government rail station in Abeokuta and 30 minutes from Lagos-Ibadan expressway, stating that the airport also has proximity to several commercial vegetable greenhouses and meat processing plants, which include Zambeef and others.

Stakeholders were of the view that the aviacargo industry in Nigeria is almost non-existent or at the lowest stage of development as Nigeria still brings in more tonnes in a week than it exports in a month. Almost all domestic cargo is road bound.

In addition, stakeholders noted that Nigerian laws on cargo exportation and importation are not in tandem with the development around the world.

This is giving investors a massive challenge and is killing cargo exportation in the country. It is believed that with the commencement of the Ogun cargo Airport, most challenges faced in the aviacargo industry will abate.

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