The Ogun State Government on Saturday said the first phase of the Agro-Cargo Airport at Illisan-Remo in Ikenne local government area of the State would be ready by May 2022.
The governor, Dapo Abiodun, who spoke while inspecting the project site said the project conceived in 2007 had all necessary approvals, including the Environmental Impact Assessment, from Aviation regulatory body, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
“This project had been conceived since 2007 and all necessary approvals were gotten in 2008. All the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), all other regulatory assessments have been met 100 percent.
“All we have to do was to brush them up to ensure they meet current realities. This was not the decision that was taken for any other reason except that which is objective,” Abiodun stated.
Giving insight on why his administration decided to execute the project, Abiodun said, it was base on the economic development agenda of his administration to have a Cargo Airport that would fully complement the agro value chain investments and activities in the State.
“When the Senate Committee on Aviation came to visit us, we shared with them the business case for this airport. We reminded them that the two airports’ proposals were not initiated by this administration.
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“I told them that the Committee we set up to look into the two airports concluded unequivocally that this location remained the best and most viable location for the airport.
“The entire cargo value chain is on this corridor. We have Oil Palm, Cashew plantations and Green House in Sagamu and multinational companies around here.
“This is the centre where items for export are evaluated and approved for export. So with a Cargo Airport here, it is very convenient to move them,” Abiodun said.
He disclosed that the State bid for the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Special Processing Zone, where in the bid document, the location was chosen to co-locate the AZ Processing Zone.
He said the area was renamed “an airport city”, because, apart from the airport and processing zone, the area has factories that would turn raw materials into finished goods for export.
The governor opined that it was important for an airport to have access to good road network, adding that the airport was bound by Sagamu-Benin and Lagos-Ibadan expressways, as well as gas pipelines, parallel to the expressways.
Governor Abiodun maintained that the airport sited on a 500 hectares of land was also part of the administration’s key enabler, adding that work was ongoing on the 2.4 kilometers access road to enable movement of equipment to the site, as well as on the 3.4 kilometers runway.
