The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC yesterday waded into the faceoff between the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, and concessionaire of the Murtala Mohammed Airport, MMA2 with a view to growing the aviation industry.
It would be recalled that both FAAN and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services had disagreed over concession agreements of the domestic airport.
While Bi-Courtney accused FAAN of not obeying concession agreements, FAAN, on the other hand, accused the concessionaire of not paying its agreed 5 percent earnings to the aviation authority amongst other breaches.
Addressing officials of FAAN and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services at a reconciliatory meeting in Lagos yesterday, Director General of the ICRC, Engr Chidi Izuwah said that the continued fight over concession agreements will do nobody any good and urged both parties to shield their swords and work together.
“There is a need for FAAN and Bi-Courtney to form a strategic partnership for an efficient aviation industry, we need to take credible action and forge ahead.’’
“We know that there have been instances where the parties had to approach the judiciary for settlement of dispute arising as a result of the implementation of the airport concession project.
“The success or failure of Public Private Partnership, PPP, transaction in Nigeria does not only depend on the advice and solution proffered by our Commission but largely on the willingness of the parties to accept the advice and implement our recommendations in resolving disputes.
“We would, therefore, like to appeal to both FAAN and Bi-Courtney Aviation Services to sheath their swords and embrace a peaceful and amicable settlement of whatever dispute that might exist on these projects.
“ I assure you that the Commission is aware of your pains, especially considering the financial risk you both assumed on this transaction and we are more than ready to give our support towards seeking an out of court settlement that will be beneficial to FAAN, Bi-Courtney and the general public,” he said.
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He explained that the business relationship between both parties is intricately interwoven that they need each other to succeed.
The Commission boss also told the concessionaire and concessioner that government was interested in having an update from the parties on the performance of the related projects.
