The Nigeria Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) says it has secured approval from the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to build an Export Processing Area at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
The Group Managing Director, NAHCO Aviance, Mrs Olatokunbo Fagbemi, said the move would boost agro-export in the country when fully operational.
Fagbemi spoke at the Gateway Forum of the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondent in Lagos on Wednesday.
She also disclosed that NAHCO had spent over N2 billion to procure equipment for passenger facilitation and other aspects of its business within the last one year.
Fagbemi said: “We have a cold room dedicated for export. We are planning on establishing an export processing area at the Lagos airport and we got an approval only two months ago from FAAN.
“The project will be in our 2020 budget and it will boost agro-export when it is fully operational. ”
She said NAHCO was partnering with different stakeholders and state governments to encourage agro-export which has a lot of untapped potential.
According to her, there is need for proper processing, packaging and preservation of agricultural produce to make them more acceptable at the international market.
Fagbemi said NAHCO, under her leadership, had embarked on a five-year transformational plan to boost growth in the aviation industry.
She said the firm had been investing on modern ground handling equipment and facilities to sustain high-level service delivery across domestic and international airports in the country.
The GMD noted that the investment was yielding the desired result with the firm recently posting a N900 million Profit-After-Tax compared to the N700 million it realised in 2018.
