Managing director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Mr Saleh Dunoma, has stated that the new international terminal currently under construction at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, would have over ten million passengers passing through it annually.

Speaking with with newsmen during an inspection tour at the construction site, the managing director said that the multi million dollars project in Kano, Port Harcourt, Abuja, and Enugu airports are at various stages of completion, with the Lagos airport left behind due some unavoidable hitches.

Saleh disclosed that the construction of terminals at the four airports was funded by the Chinese Export Import Bank to the tune of $500, in addition to the $100 counter fund by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

According to him the MAKIA’s new international terminal would be the first to be completed, arguing that the slow progress of work at the Abuja airport was due to the fact that the new terminal is being constructed near the former terminal and is causing an alleged traffic gridlock at the airport.

In her response to questions by newsmen, the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, Hajiya Binta Bello, who was at the airport to inspect the development stage of the terminal construction and the new tower, expressed satisfaction with its progress and agreed to come back to the airport the following month as the contractor promised to complete the front and hall roofing in the next 35 days.

Binta also confirmed that the contractor assured her of handing over the completed project by March 2016, adding that she extended the time to April 2016 due to the manpower hours she believed they had lost as a result of some cogent reasons.