The Federal Government is currently engaging relevant authorities to ensure over $600 million of trapped foreign airlines’ funds are released.
The relevant authorities include airlines the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and many others.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this during a tour of the newly constructed Terminal 2, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The terminal, estimated to be worth over $150 million, is one of the five airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu that benefited from the $500 million loan deal between Nigeria and China for the building of four new terminals.
In 2013, an additional $100 million counterpart fund from the Federal Government was also added to execute the project.
The new terminal has the capacity to process 14 million passengers per year, and is built on a land mass of approximately 56,000 square metres, with 66 check-in counters.
The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) also said it generates over $500,000 monthly visa on arrival from the terminal.
However, the minister, while responding to questions on the foreign airlines trapped fund, noted that relevant authorities were working hard on the issue.
He stated further that the new International Terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, was not built to replace Terminal 1 but to complement it.
Mohammed noted that one of the things the terminal manager told him was that not only was the airport in use but that passengers could also board their flights and check-in here.
“You can arrive in one terminal and pick your luggage in another and this has taken care of the issue of interface between the two terminals.
“So we need to test-run and be extremely certain that every equipment is working optimally. The beauty of it is that this airport has become operational. You can come in here and continue to various parts of the world.”
On repayment of the loan, the minister said: “When loans are used and invested in infrastructure such as this, then it means the loans are wisely used.
“The major problem is that the tax to Gross Domestic Product ratio is so low because most Nigerians do not pay tax. So I want to appeal to Nigerians to help government in paying their taxes, then there will be reduction in deficit that we are experiencing.”
