By Dan Aibangbe
Dateline Monday February 3, the usual ‘business-as-usual’ became ‘business-unusual’ at the popular Lagos Airport toll plaza. The chicken had come to roost. Interested stakeholders had come to question the status quo relating to the collections and remittances by the concessionaire at the toll plaza.
The issues at stake centred on the expired concession contract that formed the basis of authority of the Integrated Intelligent Imaging West Africa Ltd (IIIWA) (erstwhile Concessionaires/ Sole Administrators of the plaza). With the contract expiry (in February 2019) came questions such as: adequacy of the remittances, vis-a-vis the actual collections as well as the determination of the appropriate basis for estimating the amount collectible. This issue can be viewed against the backdrop of the current government’s desire to increase revenue generation across board. The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN is among prominent revenue generating organs of government.
The issue of toll collection has assumed a ding-dong dimension as option for road maintenance and revenue generation in Nigeria. Nigerians will recall that government, during the second coming of President Obasanjo, concluded that tolls were not achieving their desired objectives. During that time, the government considered that self-collection was fraught with misappropriation, while the concession model was also tainted with revenue under-declaration. That government ended up demolishing virtually all toll plazas on federal roads.
Interestingly, the airport toll plaza escaped the hammer and has proven to be a major revenue earner for the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and its supervisory aviation ministry. The airport link-road has enjoyed relatively good maintenance, despite its relatively heavy traffic. Furthermore, the ratio of toll-to-mileage has been unprecedented (compared to the nearest competitor- the Lekki express toll plazas). Other airport toll plazas also do not enjoy comparable toll-to-mileage or even traffic.
The latest issue with the concessionaire and the contract is traceable to the quest by government to optimize collections from all revenue sources and the concessionaire’s intention to maintain the status quo. With the coming of the new FAAN management, it is natural to beam the searchlight on all existing contracts and the revenues generated. Naturally, the toll plaza is a key area of focus. Feelers from the grapevine reveal that while the concessionaire intended to retain the status quo, the new FAAN management, armed with empirical data, believes that the monthly revenue generation and remittances can safely be increased by up to 50% without negatively impacting the bottom line of the erstwhile concessionaire.
This position of management is being corroborated by the action of the aviation unions which have taken it upon themselves to prove the possibilities by directly involving their members in collections. So, currently, we have the expired concessionaire and its “Sponsors” on one hand, and FAAN and the unions on the other. In between the two groups, the revenue, the law and the traffic are at stake.
This writer is praying and hoping that this latest issue does not degenerate into deeper crisis, considering that the service being rendered is perishable. Bearing in mind the prevailing circumstances, the honorable thing the concessionaire should have done was to review its operations towards accommodating higher revenue remittances or in the alternative to step aside to let others give it a try.
One thing this writer finds disagreeable is the sit-tight and entitlement attitude of IIIWA, the concessionaire, to the whole issue. Here is a concessionaire who is about fourth in line. Others had been appointed and discharged prior to IIIWA’s appointment. IIIWA has spent about eight years on this assignment. Their contract has expired, yet, they are still unprepared to discuss revenue growth and contract renewal terms. For a private enterprise, this is an emphatic no-no. Any experienced big accounts manager would have done better than sit-through a 12-month extension to an expired government contract.
I am particularly excited with the offer of the aviation unions to operate or witness collections for three months to enable independent verification of collectible revenue. Thereafter, a proper contract should be drawn with the next concessionaire based on percentages for allowances to cover pre-determined operational costs and an allowance for profit and growth to the concessionaire.
The concessionaire ought to realize that the airport toll plaza is not likely to be the last. In fact, going by feelers from government cycles, there is likely to be another era of toll concessioning across the country.
The new FAAN management has started on a good note but must establish a more efficient process of on-boarding and disengagement of concessionaires and tenants within the length and breadth of its operations for posterity sake. The performance of the new FAAN management must herald a new era of “positive business unusual” to make Nigeria get better within our life time.
- Aibangbe, a media and public relations practitioner wrote from Lagos.
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