Festus Keyamo, the Federal Minister of Aviation and Aerospace, has revealed that the Federal Executive Council authorized N3.2 billion on Monday, November 27, 2023, to purchase contemporary scanners to be used in five international airports located throughout Nigeria.
Keyamo revealed this information to State House correspondents following President Bola Tinubu’s Monday FEC meeting.
The minister also revealed that airport personnel would no longer need to physically search travelers’ bags at airports thanks to the purchase of scanners.
He said: “This is what Nigerians would be interested in because since I came to office we have been inundated with complaints of the harrowing experiences that passengers go through at the airport, where the airport officials of various agencies have to physically search their bags and it has been really getting under the skin of Nigerians.
“So we thought we should do something like where you have the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in America where there are detection machines that when it passes through your bag it detects explosives or any other thing and that is the end of the search.
‘So Council gave approval of an N3.2 billion award of contracts for the supply and installation of customized explosives and narcotics detection screening systems with a remote and dual view.”
According to Keyamo, the international airports in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port-Harcourt, and Enugu are among the ones for which these cutting-edge scanners would be purchased.
The Federal Executive Council approved Nigeria’s bilateral air service agreement with the Republic of Guyana, Keyamo also revealed to the State House Correspondents.
According to him, the bilateral agreement with Guyana was signed in 2014, nine years ago, but it had not been ratified until Monday’s FEC meeting.
The minister clarified that direct flights between Guyana and Nigeria are now possible as a result of the bilateral air service agreement being ratified.
“We have entered into an agreement with Guyana, a South American country. They have been very anxious to have direct flights from Guyana to Nigeria. This agreement was entered into, way back in 2014 with the administration at that time but it required ratification by the Executive and that is what was done today,” Keyamo started.
