Challenges of airport cleaning business, by Lakewood General Manager

Kelvin Osa Okunbor

To keep four international airport terminals clean is not an easy task, Lakewood Development Company Limited engaged by the the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has said.

General Manager Services, Mrs Belinda Irafor disclosed this while speaking in an interview after clinching an award as the best airport cleaning services provider at the Nigerian Aviation Awards (NIGAV) in Lagos.

Mrs Irafor said keeping the airports clean is not a simple task because the airport terminal as a sensitive facility needs an environment that is not only hygienic for passenger convenience and comfort but must at all times look good.

She said given the large number of passengers between 5,000 and 10,000 that visits and use the airports everyday it is only incumbent on the provider of cleaning services to ensure the environment is clean, comfortable and friendly.

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Irafor said: “We are very grateful for this award. We are into janitorial cleaning, industrial cleaning and we are also in estate management. We are the ones cleaning the four international airports in Nigeria. Port Harcourt, Calabar, Lagos and Abuja. Cleaning is a very interesting job because cleanliness is nearness to God. You have to make your environment clean and airport is a very important place and a very sensitive environment whereby you have to make the convenience and the entire environment hygienic and also make the passengers comfortable”.

Irafor said “For that reason and a professional cleaning company, we do our best and we leave the rest to God by making sure that the environment is convenient for everybody. We are very grateful for this award and we pray more come. We want the the federal government to give us more opportunity to do better and give us more jobs”.

She commended the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for their support and cooperation but urged the Authority to make all the facilities at the airport work.

“I think the only thing I want them to do is to allow us work as a team. They have been very accommodating and helpful. Whenever, we have complaints, they listen to us. I think the only thing that I want them to do for us right now is to make all the facilities working,” Mrs Irafor said.

On runway de-rubberisation, she said: “We are looking into that aspect but for now, we are waiting for the authorities to be called to do that. Apart from cleaning, we do runway de-rubberisation outside the country.”