Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, recently shared that the Agro-Cargo Airport project, located along Ilisan-Iperu road in the Ikenne Local Government Area of the state, is on track to be operational for commercial flight services by December. He provided this update during an inspection of the project’s progress, as reported in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Lekan Adeniran.
Governor Abiodun also noted that the state government anticipates recouping its investments in the project, as several international aviation companies are expressing interest in concessionary operations. The governor stated that the concession process is expected to be finalized within the next 30 to 45 days, which would enable the state to recover the funds allocated for the facility.
According to Abiodun, “This airport, sometime by the end of November, December would be fully approved. Commercial operations would start here. It means that you can board a flight to Abuja, Port Harcourt, and I am sure that by the end of the year, you will begin to see international flights leave wherever and land in this airport by the grace of God.” This development signals the state’s commitment to expanding its aviation infrastructure and positioning itself for future economic growth.
He added, “We are building a truly international airport, and we believe that we as government should be facilitators to the enablers. We have de-risked this project because as much as we believe that as a government, we don’t have any business in business, we realize the fact that were we to wait for others to come and build this airport, we would probably be waiting after I must have left office.
“But, what did we do? We decided as a government to look for funding and build this airport and then concede it to others, thereby de-risking the project. So, today, what you see is a world-class airport that in itself is attracting the attention of airport operators around the world.
“We have a process that is in place where a few others have expressed interest to get the airport concession to them. It is very exciting that the airport is not completed, and yet people are jostling to take over the airport, pay us all that it has cost us, and begin to run this airport. Had we not built this airport to a world-class standard, nobody would come here.
“There are other airports all over the country that different states have built, and I don’t know how much interest those airports are receiving all over the world, but this airport is receiving interest from international airport operators around the world.
“You will see that our initiatives, vision, dedication, intentionality, resolute, our refusal to be distracted by treacherous politicians and backstabbers, and our resolve to remain focused, is paying off.”
