The Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah. The Enugu State Government has identified the establishment of Enugu Air and the concession of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport as critical drivers of its ambition to grow the state’s economy from $4.4bn to $30bn by 2031.
The government added that the initiatives are expected to boost tourism, attract investments, enhance agricultural exports, and position Enugu as the economic hub of the South-East. The Secretary to the State Government, Chidiebere Onyia, disclosed this on Tuesday during the Renewed Hope Media Tour of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
According to Onyia, the airport project is part of a broader strategy by the administration of Governor Peter Mbah to position Enugu as a major economic hub driven by tourism, hospitality, agriculture, and private sector investments. He said, “So under this government, Peter Mbah and the leadership of the President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the governor had approached the aviation sector to start the process of concessioning this airport standing behind me, the international airport, in alignment with the broader vision for aviation tourism in Enugu State.
“The context is not just the concessioning. The context is that the governor looked at Enugu as an economic hub where tourism and the hospitality sector could be aligned.” Onyia noted that the state government had developed projections around expected visitor traffic and the potential economic impact of the aviation sector.
He said, “So we thought if we were expecting three to five million visitors coming to Enugu, which was our projection, and this projection is not just something that we just came up with a number, we’re also looking at how the aviation sector complements our tourism and hospitality space by saying that this is the quantum of revenue of investment that can catalyse the growth towards our GDP because at inception what we had planned was to move the Enugu State GDP from $4.4bn, that His Excellency met it, to $30bn by 2031.” The SSG explained that Enugu Air was conceived to ensure that the state was not entirely dependent on commercial airlines operating their own schedules into the state.
He said, “If we’re expecting them, then we can’t depend on third-party airlines to bring people to Enugu solely based on their schedule. That was how the Enugu Air concept came in, and you’ve seen some of our aeroplanes. We have six now, and this is just phase one, bringing in people into Enugu so that when visitors and tourists come to Enugu, they have access to airlines that can bring them in.” According to him, the government’s economic blueprint also includes revitalising tourist attractions across the state to provide destinations for visitors arriving through the airport.
He stated, “The second component was also to now revitalise our tourism sector by creating our different tourism centres, the home waterfall, and the rest of them across the state. “Now, if people are going to come here for tourism, they need to be able to get into Enugu, and when they get into Enugu, we’ll need places to go to.” Onyia said the airport infrastructure would equally support the state’s agricultural development agenda through cargo operations.
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This is also going to help us with our agricultural investment outlook because this is where the cargo terminal will be, where we can move things in and out of the state to create that economic hub. Enugu State, being the centre of the capital of the South-East, this is the thinking that you see behind it.” He added that the government had adopted a private sector-led approach in the aviation sector to ensure efficiency and sustainability.
“What we don’t want is the whole stereotype of government getting into a space that they are not competent in, and that’s also how we started with Enugu Air. We had EasyJet partnered with them to build the capacity based on their experience to come in, and then now we have transferred it into a private sector-run business where the governance structure is set up, where there’s a board, and they’re competent people in it, not state actors that will come into a space they might not be competent in,” Onyia said.