Buhari commissions new airport terminal, Dangote fertilizer plant in Lagos

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday commissioned a new international terminal wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos.

Mr Buhari, who took a tour around the project terminal, said the facility was built on a landmass of approximately 56,000 square metres, with 66 check-in counters and has the capacity to process 14 million passengers annually.

The new terminal is equipped with censored conveyor belt, seven jet bridges, 10 ultra-modern cooling systems, heat extraction in the baggage hall, ample space for duty free shops and banks, recreational areas for children, 22-room hotel for stop-overs among others.

The president also conducted the tape-cutting ceremony marking the commissioning of Dangote Fertiliser Plant with a nameplate capacity of 3 million metric tonnes per annum in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos.

He inaugurated the $2.5 billion project in the presence of dignitaries including Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Industries Limited, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele, and Minister of Trade and Investment Niyi Adebayo.

The urea and ammonia fertiliser plant is the biggest of its kind in the world and, combined with a 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery standing within its vicinity, will cost Africa’s richest man $17.5 billion, Mr Emefiele said at the event.

The refinery is due for launch later this year.

Test run began at the facility in March 2020 in hope that production would commence later in the year. But not until the first quarter of 2021 did that happen on account of disruptions from the pandemic outbreak.