Hone/News:Stella Oduah, Aviation Minister is Champion’s Man of the Year

Stella Oduah, Aviation Minister is Champion’s Man of the Year

The Honourable Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah, has emerged Champion Newspaper’s man of the year, 2012, in recognition of her remarkable contributions to the growth of the country’s aviation industry since her assumption of office in 2011.

 

 This award has justified the accolades that Princess Oduah has received from aviation stakeholders and some members of the public for the passion she has shown in turning around the fortunes of the country’s aviation industry.
 

The Airport Remodelling Project, started under her tenure by the Federal Government, is the most ambitious airport development programme of the Federal Government since the Aerodrome Development Programme of the mid 1970s, which led to the establishment of the then Nigerian Airports Authority in 1978. 

The Airport Remodelling Project, which is in two phases, is designed to transform Nigerian airport terminals into world class facilities.
 Two of such terminals in Lagos (Domestic Terminal I) and Abuja (General Aviation Terminal) have already been commissioned and are offering world class services.
 

The Honourable Minister also initiated and is vigorously implementing the aviation sector master plan, the first of its kind in the industry, with the mission “to transform the aviation industry into an efficient, profitable, self-sustaining, effective and a preferred mode of transportation.” 

She has given practical expression to this mission by institutionalizing world class safety and security standards at all Nigerian airports, carrying out structural reforms in all the parastatals of the ministry, creating a Directorate of Cargo Development in FAAN that would stimulate the growth of cargo business through Nigerian airports, among other measures designed to increase the revenue derivable from the aviation industry by 300 per cent.
 

 The aviation road map has also set in motion, the development of airport cities, called aerotropolis, which will turn Nigerian airports into major employment, shopping, trading, business, leisure and cargo village destinations as obtained in most advanced countries of the world.
 

In the third quarter of last year, she embarked on an aviation road show (investment drive) in three different continents of the world, with top officials of parastatals under her ministry, to attract foreign investors to the industry. 

That investment drive has already started yielding results with the Chinese Government signing a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian government to build ultra-modern international terminals at five Nigeria airports in Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Enugu and Port-Harcourt. Work on the terminals will commence in March, this year.
 
 Yakubu Dati
GM (Corporate Communications)