Airport Tolls: Keyamo Reveals Billions Lost Under Past Govts

Festus Keyamo

The Federal Government has disclosed that it reportedly lost N10 billion in revenue that ought to have accrued from airport tollgates under past administrations.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, made this known while speaking to State House correspondents on Tuesday at the end of a two-day meeting of the Federal Executive Council, FEC.

The minister lamented that the ministry accumulated 82 percent in the negative from the complimentary e-tags it printed, noting that 82 percent of the e-tags are given free of charge to VIPs.

According to Keyamo, due to the exemption policy, the ministry makes only about N100 million from a particular airport gate every month instead of about N260 million.

He added that free e-tags for the VIPs had, in the past, led to the loss of billions of naira.

He stated, “Let me give you the shocking statistics. The negative figure that we get at the end of the day from the complimentary e-tags is 82 per cent, in the negative.

“In other words, where we are supposed to have a 100 per cent contract on the e-costs from these e-tags that we print, it is only 18 per cent that we now end up selling. That is how bad it is. 18 per cent and 82 per cent of these e-tags are given out free of charge to VIPs. So, imagine the loss in my sector, and I ask myself,’ Which other sector will I go to that they give me anything free?’

“Is it because I’m a VIP that you say that in FCT, I should not pay land charges that you waive it for me? I pay for that sector. I pay for power. Yes, I pay for everything. So, why would anybody now come to my own sector and want to get free passage? Not possible. That is how bad it is.

“So this has led in the past to loss of billions of naira, not millions, annually. Yet, our airport infrastructure, you know, is decaying. I am helpless. I’m looking for concessionaires. I’m looking for help with decaying infrastructure.

“They will be the first to cry out, these same VIPs – ‘why are the toilets like this? Why are your toilets smelling? Why can’t you do this?’ They are the same people, but they don’t pay for the services. So, if we want improved infrastructure at the airport, we must pay for services.

“I’ll give you another example. In one of the access gates, based on the count of the barrier going up and down, we are supposed to be making N250m or 260 million from that gate every month. That gate, because of exemptions, the return to us is less than N100 million every month.”

Following the huge loss, the FEC decided that the president, vice president, and other top government functionaries would start paying access fees or the e-tag at all 24 federal airports across the country.

Prior to this development, the president, vice president, and some government officials were exempted from paying access fees at the airports’ gates.