The federal government on Monday said the removal of fuel and foreign exchange subsidies has enhanced its capacity to fund critical aviation infrastructure across major airports in the country.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development,  Festus Keyamo, stated this Monday in Lagos at Aero’s Contractor’s 67th anniversary celebration.

Keyamo said the policy changes freed resources previously committed to subsidies and improved government liquidity.

He said this created greater capacity to invest in aviation infrastructure after decades of underfunding.

He stated that the federal government was targeting N1 trillion under the Renewed Hope Agenda for critical aviation infrastructure.

He said 500 million dollars (N920 billion) had been raised for reconstruction of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, without borrowing.

Keyamo said Nigeria’s inability to adequately finance its major airports over the years was largely linked to revenues committed to fuel subsidy and foreign exchange subsidies.

He said the situation left critical aviation infrastructure to deteriorate, while major airport projects increasingly depended on borrowing.

“Because the country had no money for infrastructure, the thing we managed to do was to borrow money,” he said.

The minister said terminals constructed in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt were funded with Chinese loans, which Nigeria was still repaying.

He contrasted the earlier borrowing with the current administration’s approach to financing airport infrastructure.

“In less than two years after we removed subsidies from both naira and fuel, President Bola Tinubu raised 500 million dollars to rebuild Lagos Airport. Not money borrowed,” he said.

Keyamo said the increased liquidity following the policy changes had strengthened the government’s ability to fund major infrastructure projects.

He also linked the reforms to an increase in the country’s foreign reserves, which he said had risen from 3 billion dollars to 56 billion dollars. (NAN)