Kunle Somorin writes about the 16 year-old abandoned Agro-cargo airport project resuscitated by Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State which is billed for completion by early 2023
When at the recent Federal Executive Council media briefing, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mr Clem Agba, lampooned state governors for the rising poverty in the country, saying they relish in “executing bogus projects” instead of improving lives of people particularly in the rural areas, many thought he had not thought through the revolution going on in a State like Ogun.
“I think from the Federal Government’s side we are doing our best. But we need to say that rather than governors continuing to compete to take loans to build airports that are not necessary, where they have other airports so close to thema, or governors now competing to build flyovers all over the place,”Agba had blurted.
Ogun State present a case that is distinctly different from the one painted by Agba. The airport being put in place has job creation, agriculture and social welfare components that will not only benefit the elite but the grassroots people.
Although not building a new bridge or flyover, Governor Dapo Abiodun is finishing all the abandoned projects started by his predecessors. The airport itself is an inherited project.
Said the Governor at a parley on Budget:“I will not leave any project abandoned by previous government. Those they funded or abandoned midway will be completed by us. When we were drawing up budget too, we asked for your inputs and these are the roads and projects you chose by yourselves
“Infrastructure, especially road will be given the right attention in order to open up the state for more economic development”, he had said after inspecting major roads in the East and Central Senatorial Districts of the State, adding that the Kuto flyover and service lanes in Abeokuta, though awarded by the last administration, was completed because taxpayers money had been expended on it.
It is the same reason that informed the return to the airport project that was initiated 16 years ago by another of his predecessors.
The vision behind the airport and most of the projects, he summarised as one “which is to give Ogun State focused and qualitative governance and to create an enabling environment for a public- private sector partnership, which is fundamental to reliable economic development and individual prosperity of the people of Ogun”.
Partnership on the airport project was given an expression with the $400m investment by the Gagan Guptan-led Arise Integrated Industrial Platfrom, a multinational company, working in collaboration with African Finance Corporation and Africa Import-Export Bank.
These foreign investors performed the ground-breaking ceremony of what they called a special agro-industrial processing zone (SAPZ)early this month.
Similarly, the Nigerian Customs Service has booked 100 hectres and the Nigerian Airforce has also committed to bringing their operations to what promises to be an aerotropolis (airport city) that will accommodate other concerns.
The Gateway Agro-cargo airport is strategically located within an Aerotropolis (Airport City) along the Ilishan-Iperu-Remo road of the busy Lagos Ibadan expressway and the Sagamu – Benin expressway. It shares close proximity to key industrial and agro-economic clusters within the state and its Southwestern neighbours.
“We are strategic in siting the airport here. This is the centre of the state and a quick get-away and alternative route from Lagos, the country’s commercial capital. Activities at the airport will be supported by a Distribution and Logistic hub located within the airport,”the State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Ade Akinsanya, has been quoted as saying.
Already in place are facilities like the four-kilometre runway, the 36-metre tall control tower, fire station, cargo apron and terminal buildings and 750 workers on site daily working with floodlights round the clock.
All the pavement sections are going on while the cargo apron of 82,000 square metre for 2 type E and 2 type C aircrafts are being schedule for completion this month. The total are for the terminal apron is 50,000 square metres and can take one Type E and one Type C aircraft or 3 Type C aircrafts simultaneously.
All aprons are paved – plain, rigid and reinforced. The airport would provide facilities for cargo processing, storage, warehouses, training centre, provide an international standard testing centre for agricultural produce, serve as a logistic hub and also provide routine commercial flight. Commenced in March 2021 and due for commissioning at the turn of the year, the Gateway Agro-cargo airport at Ilishan-Remo in Ikenne local Government Area of Ogun State, is an ambitious project. It aspires to turns the hitherto refuse dump site to an aerotropolis – an airport city. It needs no gainsaying that agriculture value chain, the people and the economy of the state and individual prosperity of the people will be enhanced when the airport comes full stream.
“This is an aerotropolis; it is not just an airport but one that adds value to services. The agro serving part is the most interesting. It is going to be a conglomeration of agro processing companies that take raw materials, turn them into finished goods. We will also have aggregation centres, storage facilities for agro produce so that the agro processing centres will not run out of raw materials.
“This is a truly an International Cargo Airport. At the stage it is now, it is already attracting a lot of attention and investors. The Nigeria Customs Service and the Nigerian Air Force are coming. The Customs alone has requested and paid for 100 acres of land to build their base and training school. Others have signified interest to build warehouses. Cargo companies have also applied to have their presence here. So are commercial flight operators
“Those that want to go into the hospitality business have applied to build hotels. We will also have demonstration farms that would be run through an outgrower scheme. That is the entire gamut of what will be seen here. I don’t have any doubt that this airport, in the first instance, will generate over 25,000 to 30,000 jobs,” Governor Abiodun enthused.
Both Ilishan and Iperu Remo towns have been upbeat with the coming of the agro-cargo airport and are enjoying the big city feel of the emerging aerotropolis.
A visit to the aerotropolis which was a refuse site some 20 months ago now wears a new look. The workforce, over 750 on site daily speak loud about how dear the project is.
Conceived by former Governor Gbenga Daniel in 2007 and abandoned by his successor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the Gateway Agro Cargo Airport, hopes to attract business and investment and to also take full advantage of the proximity of the state to Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital and provide answers to the logistic nightmares industry owners and importers go through as a result of the congestion of the two seaports, and International Airport – both in Lagos.
Townsfolk are overjoyed when they heard and saw this government is seriously pursuing the construction of an agro cargo airport at the Remo Industrial Cluster which holds the promise to bring development to their clans and improve their standard of living with new businesses springing up.
It needs no gainsaying that with the idea in March, 2021 to start what his predecessors could not complete, Prince Abiodun has moved a notch further than the political rhetoric and fancy project that the minister of state was talking about.
-Somorin writes from Abeokuta
