Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has inaugurated the newly built Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport terminal, the largest airport in West Africa, in the capital city Abuja.
The "ultra-modern" facility will accelerate the government's goal to develop Nigeria into a regional air transportation hub, the president said while inaugurating the airport on Thursday.
At a ceremony held for the inauguration of the China-assisted project, Buhari acknowledged aviation as a catalyst for economic growth, saying Nigeria aims to assume a leadership position in aviation in Africa.
"This event today reflects Government's deliberate policy to sustain the development of Nigeria's infrastructure. We are gradually closing the infrastructural deficit bedeviling our country," Buhari said.
In his speech, Buhari noted that the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport terminal is the first to be connected to a rail transport system in the country and the West African region, reports Xinhua.
The new international airport terminal is a world-class aviation transport facility designed to handle 15 million passengers annually, open more convenient air routes and contribute immensely to the economic and infrastructure development of Nigeria.
The terminal, the second in a series of four new terminal projects in Nigeria, was constructed in partnership with the Chinese government.
In October, a terminal was inaugurated at Port Harcourt Int'l Airport in southern Nigeria. The other two terminals are respectively in Kano and Lagos.
These four terminal projects were supported by the Export-Import Bank of China and the Nigerian government.
The new terminal at Nnamdi Azikiwe has 72 check-in counters, five baggage collection carousels, 28 immigration desks at arrival and 16 at departure, eight security screening points and eight passenger boarding bridges.
It also has a walkway to link the Nigerian capital metro rail with an additional apron linking the domestic wing of the airport and many other facilities.