Wole Shadare 
The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs Olubunmi Kiku, has tasked the Aviacargo cargo roadmap committee to immediately submit its implementation schedule, noting that it was of great importance to the government.
The coordinator of the Committee, Mr. Ikechi Uko, had briefed her on the work done so far. He pointed out that Wednesday was the first meeting of the enlarged committee in over 10 months.
He thanked the MD for meeting with the team and renewing the commitment of FAAN to the successful completion of the project.
The roadmap committee was set up in December 2022 to provide a roadmap to grow air cargo in Nigeria from the 5th position in Africa to number one on the continent.
There have been three changes of the Chief Executives at FAAN within 12 months with Mrs Kuku taking over in December 2023. Uko stated that these changes disrupted the project as all meetings ceased until the team at FAAN settled in.
Within this period FAAN implemented some of the suggestions made by the Committee by creating a New Directorate of Cargo Development and Services.
These changes at FAAN, according to him, led to recent meetings between the committee and the directorate to streamline the activities between the two of them.
The coordination of the directorate and the committee led to the enlarged meeting with Kuku and her team. Among the outcomes of the meeting was the launch of a pilot project of exports through four selected airports.
There will be a trial run of perishables export from harvesting at the farm through the Lagos Airport in a timeline of less than 24 hours.
There will be another trial Run of Cereals through the Kano Airport. There will also be a trial run of Exports through the Enugu Airport. The last Trial run will be from Jos Airport.
These trial runs are to test the effectiveness of the air cargo pathway developed by the Roadmap Committee. The trial runs will involve the stakeholders of the air cargo ecosystem.
