The Lagos State government has received approval from the Nigerian government for an additional international airport.
Lagos State governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, officially got the approval for the airport at the ongoing Ehingbeti Lagos Economic Summit.
The Summit is titled ‘Lagos State 2025-2052: Charting the Paths to Sustainable Socio-Economic Growth.
Hadi Sirika, the Aviation Minister, handed over the approval to the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at the ongoing Lagos Economic Summit.
The new Lekki International Airport would be both a passenger and cargo airport. The airport is a development project east of Lagos.
The master plan for the airport has since been completed, and a 3,500-hectare site for the airport has been secured.
It is designed to handle about five million passengers per annum with a scope for expansion.
The Aviation Minister stated that Lagos has the resources and money to have another airport to help it decongest the existing Murtala Mohammed International Airport.
Sirika said:
“This is our Lagos, and having this additional airport will make Lagos more accessible. It will link the people and state closer to the markets, culture, history, tradition, schools, hospitals, larger economy, commerce, and trade.
The GDP of Lagos, now running into a trillion, makes up about 30 percent of the country’s total GDP, thus making it the hub of West Africa and Africa as a whole.
“You will also agree with me that the Murtala Muhammed International Airport is now congested and far from the centre of the action at the moment because there is a new Lagos – the Eko Atlantic City, Lekki Free Zone, the road networks around Epe – and many other development projects, making Lagos need this airport like yesterday.
“We are therefore more than happy to approve it, and we will get our agencies to supervise it to ensure it is done very well, which is also the signature of Lagos itself.”
Governor Sanwo-Olu, who received the letter enthusiastically, described it as the result of a good partnership with the Federal Government.
Sanwo-Olu said:
“It is very exciting to have the minister here with us today to do the presentation, and this will be the first in the series of announcements to come between today and tomorrow.
“For us, it is about a good partnership with the Federal Government through the Ministry of Aviation, but the real beneficiaries are the citizens and the businesses we are trying to activate. We are doing Govt2B and B2B models, which is how you develop economies like this.
“We want to give businesses the platform and infrastructure needed to thrive. This infrastructure will reduce travel time, make Lagos easily and with better access, and people can make better local and international business decisions given all the investments that have been put here. So it’s the right step at the right time.”
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