On October 20, 2026, Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo and lawyer and businessman Wale Babalakin signed a closing settlement that ends a dispute over Murtala Muhammed Airport Terminal Two (MMA2) in Lagos. The Federal Executive Council accepted it, ending the combat that had run for practically 20 years.
MMA2 is the first and solely main Nigerian airport terminal constructed wholly with personal cash. After a hearth destroyed the outdated home terminal in 2000, Babalakin’s Bi-Courtney Aviation Services took over the undertaking as reserve bidder when the first winner defaulted, and it opened in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 12 months. 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 accepted 36. Bi-Courtney additionally mentioned the authorities broke an exclusivity clause by protecting the outdated General Aviation Terminal open and diverting flights.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 resort and convention centre.
Under the settlement, Bi-Courtney writes off the N132 billion, provides up claims to the outdated terminal, drops the exclusivity clause on different Lagos home airport developments and resumes paying concession charges instantly.
The authorities cancels 20 years of unpaid concession charges, restores the resort 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 reviews: 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 look at; no penalty for lacking it’s reported.
