The Federal Government has attributed the absence of Wi-Fi at the various Nigerian international airports to the inter-agency rivalry between the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
This was made known by the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, while appearing as a guest on a Channels Television programme, Sunday Politics.
While speaking, Keyamo blamed the problem on the argument between these two agencies under his ministry, over whose responsibility it is to provide Wi-Fi at the airports.
Keyamo said, “It’s a number of factors, but when I came into office, I saw the situation on the ground. And the first situation I tried to solve was an argument between two of my agencies on who was going to take care of Wi-Fi.
“There is an agency called NAMA, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, and they said, ‘Well, if you look at the law of NAMA, it says NAMA is in charge of all navigation equipment, radio, communication, and all.’ So NAMA felt, ‘It’s our responsibility to take care of Wi-Fi.’
“Now, another of my agencies, FAAN, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, was arguing that it is part of the infrastructure at the airport. And FAAN, by law, is imbued with the power to take care of all infrastructure at the airport. So they said, ‘Wi-Fi is part of infrastructure.’’
The Minister pointed out that this argument went back and forth, and they were writing letters until last year when he finally decided that FAAN should back out while NAMA should be in charge of providing Wi-Fi at the airports.
He explained that while it is clear now that NAMA is in charge of Wi-Fi, the 2024 Budget has passed, and the project could no longer be done then.
However, he said that it has now been captured in the 2025 budget, assuring Nigerians that by the end of 2025, there will be a functional Wi-Fi at Terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, which is not being upgraded.
The minister said that the government is working on a Public-Private Partnership, which will ensure that the Wi-Fi project is successful.
In a related development, Keyamo has defended plans by the Federal Government to remodel Terminal One of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos with N712 billion, saying it is a quest to meet world-class standards.
The clarification follows criticism from various quarters with the argument that it was a misplacement of priority by the Bola Tinubu Presidency at a time when millions of Nigerians groan under all-time high inflation, hunger, and skyrocketing living costs, sparked by the twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the foreign exchange windows by the government.
The Minister argued that the airport upgrade would be funded “through the Renewed Hope Infrastructural Funding. It is not a budgetary kind of expenditure. It is from the special infrastructure fund”.
The minister said that without the rebuilding of the airport terminal, many foreign airlines would abandon the country’s route.