FG approves N45.08bn airport biosecurity system for five airports

The Federal Government has approved N45.08 billion for a national biosecurity and disease surveillance system covering five international airports.

Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Muhammad Ali Pate announced the approval at a media briefing in Abuja after Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu. Voice of Nigeria reports the minister’s account.

The project is a 20-year public-private partnership with the BioHealth Consortium, awarded under a design, finance, build, operate and transfer arrangement. Private partners will design, finance, build and operate the system during the concession, which the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission reviewed and endorsed. Assets revert to the Federal Government at the end of the 20 years.

The system will be deployed at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Port Harcourt International Airport and Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu. More than 18 million passengers pass through the country’s airports annually.

Planned equipment includes aircraft wastewater surveillance to detect pathogens arriving on flights, air and surface sampling units, cargo and baggage biosurveillance, portable laboratories at points of entry and a National Surveillance Operations Centre for real-time monitoring. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Port Health Services, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Immigration Service and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control will participate.

The approval came two weeks after Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case of the current outbreak, which had been detected on 19 October. The minister said Nigeria had maintained airport screening for five months before the case appeared.

Deployment is still prospective: the approved partnership must now move into implementation, and no completion or operational start date has been announced.

Sources: Voice of Nigeria; Punch; TheCable; Daily Post; Channels Television