President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigeria is now better positioned to tap the benefits of international trade compared to what it used to be in the past.He made this assertion during his visit to Rivers state for commissioning of the newly constructed International Wing of the Port Harcourt Airport.
Correspondent Uche Okoro reports that the project along with three others in Lagos, Abuja and Kano commenced in February 2014.
It was actualized through a Chinese Exim bank loan of 500 million Dollars with a 100 million dollar counterpart funding from the Federal Government.
The facility is expected to boost the capacity of the Port Harcourt International Airport to cater for the surge in passenger traffic as well as ease movement of goods and services. And President Buhari is delighted about the positive impact this would have on the Nation’s economy.
The federal ministry of aviation ranks the Port Harcourt International Airport as the third busiest in the country serving almost 2 million passengers in 2017.
But Aviation officials said the new terminal building has the capacity to process 7 million passengers annually. It is equipped with 24check-in counters, 3 baggage claim points, 4 security-screening points and 4 passenger-boarding gates.