By Marcus Ikechukwu
The Federal Executive Council (FEC), presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari has just approved a total of N92,123,175,305.77 for the construction of a second runway at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The approval came 24 hours after the inauguration of the new terminal building at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, where President Buhari had directed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed to source special funds for the project.
Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, broke the information after the week’s virtual FEC meeting, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Wednesday.
According to him, the entire sum would be spread over a number of works to be carried out at the airport, over a period of 12 months.
When pushed to know how the funding would be sourced for the project given the paucity of funds available to government, Sirika explained to State House Correspondents, saying, “the administration would use same pattern it had used to raise funding for all of its other projects across sectors to deliver the runway in 12 months”.