Fed Govt Signs Agreement on Lagos Trade Fair Concession

The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has signed a tripartite agreement with Portman Freight Services Limited and Lagos International Trade Fair Complex (LITFC) to lease a portion of the complex to the freight service company.

While signing the agreement at the conference hall of the Bureau, the Director-General, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) Mr Alex Okoh, noted that the event marked the commencement of the work on the portion of Parcel A and B that is not designated for concession and the standardisation of lease agreements, which would, ultimately, increase the earnings of the LITFC and the Federal Government in particular.

This was disclosed in a statement by BPE’s Head of Public Communications, Amina Othman Tukur.

According to the statement, Privatisation and Commercialisation Act (1999), the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) approved the concession of LITFC for Aulic Nigeria Limited in 2007.

He noted that the concession agreement was terminated by the NCP in 2017 due to the failure of Aulic Nigeria Limited to meet the covenants listed in the concession agreement and BPE was directed to recommence the re-concession of the complex.

He further said the Management Board of LITFC repossessed the enterprise from Aulic Nigeria and the BPE recommenced the re-concession of the LITFC as directed by the NCP for the Federal Government with the call for Expression of Interest (EOIs) on Monday, June 20, last year.

The DG added that in carrying out the concessions, it was discovered Portman Freight Services had a 20-year lease agreement for Hall 4 with the former concessionaire (Aulic Nigeria) before the termination of Aulic’s concession by the NCP in August 2017.