Hiked Airport Charges Charge Up The System As Cargo Stakeholders Seek Dialogue
The Deputy President, Air Logistics, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Segun Musa has called on the Minister of Aviation & Aerospace Dev elopement. Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN) to prevail on the management of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), to accept the airport cargo stakeholders’ proposal for a dialogue with FAAN over increment in charges and possible measures for cargo revenue improvements, so as to avoid operations shutdown to the detriment of the national economy.
Speaking during a joint press conference held today at NAGAFF Secretariat, Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos by NAGAFF, Association of Nigeria licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and National Association of Freight Forwarders African Consolidation (NAFFAC), Musa said the stakeholders were not informed by FAAN before the recent increment from N7 per kilo to N20 per kilo, adding that several letters had been written to FAAN, seeking a meeting with FAAN over the issue so as to have opportunity for stakeholders’ input on how to increase cargo output at the nation’s airports but that there had not been a positive response.
“All cargo airport operators may be pushed to down tools and it will affect the economy of the country. We don’t want that. We just need a listening ear. What we need is engagement,’ he explained.
The Chairman of ANLCA, MMA Chapter, Mr. Temitope Akindele in his presentation, described the collections being made by FAAN from cargo operators as extortion based on Part 7 of the FAAN Act 2022 “which says that FAAN has sold its statutory rights to cargo handlers, NAHCO and SAHCO,” who ought to be the ones collecting such charges from airlines, forwarders and other cargo stakeholders at the airport.
Akindele narrated how FAAN had demolished their secretariat worth N150 million and they operated for five years without a secretariat, even though they were paying N2 per kilo fees to FAAN.
“In April 2010, FAAN came up with a proposal for N7 per kilo charge. A total of 17 meetings of negotiations were held in 2010 with FAAN. We insisted on a trade-by-barter arrangement. Give us another site and we will accept N7 per kilo proposal. They gave us the present location of the secretariat and we have been paying N7 per kilo.”
According to him, “In 2010, FAAN collected N1.7 billion as charges from the 110 million kilos of cargo that came into the country. FAAN came again with a proposal of N20 per kilo.”
“We received a sudden notice that from February 1, 2026 there will be new charges. We grounded operation because we see all these collections as extortion,” he said.
“We are ready for negotiations. We are not fighting with FAAN. We are not against the increment. We are only talking about justification for it. Now, FAAN has brought another notice that we quit this edifice. They want to demolish it again,” he alleged.
