On October 20, 2026, Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo and lawyer and businessman Wale Babalakin signed a remaining settlement that ends a dispute over Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2) in Lagos. The Federal Executive Council accredited it, ending the combat that had run for practically twenty years.
MMA2 is the first and solely main Nigerian airport terminal constructed wholly with non-public cash. After a hearth destroyed the previous home terminal in 2000, Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney Aviation Services took over the undertaking as reserve bidder when the first winner defaulted, and it opened in May 2007.
It handles about 75 per cent of Lagos’s home flights and can take 4 million passengers a yr. It was additionally the first terminal in West Africa with common-use check-in techniques, self-service kiosks and baggage reconciliation.
The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) mentioned the concession ran for 12 years, whereas Bi-Courtney mentioned the Yar’Adua authorities accredited 36. Bi-Courtney additionally mentioned the authorities broke an exclusivity clause by conserving the previous General Aviation Terminal open and diverting flights.
Bi-Courtney sued, received a N132 billion judgment for misplaced income and noticed the Supreme Court uphold it. The authorities didn’t pay, and Bi-Courtney withheld its concession charges, which stalled a lodge and convention centre.
Under the settlement, Bi-Courtney writes off the N132 billion, provides up claims to the previous terminal, drops the exclusivity clause on different Lagos home airport developments and resumes paying concession charges instantly.
The authorities cancels twenty years of unpaid concession charges, restores the lodge and convention centre tasks with a 24-month deadline, approves transferring regional flights to MMA2 and grants further land to enlarge the plane apron.
Two solutions are lacking from most stories: how a lot in charges was cancelled, and whether or not the settlement fixes the concession at 12 or 36 years, a central level of the combat. The 24-month deadline is the first date to observe; no penalty for lacking it’s reported.
