•Festus Keyamo and MMIA
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has explained the reason behind the absence of wifi in Nigerian international airports.
Speaking on Channels Television last night, Keyamo blamed the problem on the argument between two agencies of his ministry, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) over whose responsibility it is to provide wifi at the airports.
“It’s a number of factors, but when I came into office, I saw the situation on ground. And the first situation I tried to solve was an argument between two of my agencies on who was going to take care of Wi-Fi.
“There is an agency called NAMA, Nigerian Airspace Management Agency and they said, ‘Well, if you look at the law of NAMA, it says NAMA is in charge of all navigation equipment, radio, communication, and all.’ So NAMA felt, ‘It’s our responsibility to take care of Wi-Fi.’
“Now, another of my agencies, FAAN, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, was arguing that it is part of the infrastructure at the airport. And FAAN, by law, is imbued with the power to take care of all infrastructure at the airport. So they said, ‘Wi-Fi is part of infrastructure,” Keyamo said.
He said that the back and forth continued until last year when he finally decided that FAAN should back out while NAMA be in charge of providing Wi-Fi at the airports.
He explained that while it is clear now that NAMA is in charge of Wi-Fi, the 2024 Budget has passed and the project could no longer be done then.
However, he said that it has now been captured in the 2025 budget, assuring Nigerians that by the end of 2025, there will be a functional Wi-Fi at the terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
The minister said that the government is working on a Public-Private Partnership which will ensure that the Wi-Fi project is successful.
