No fewer than 600 workers of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) are set to lose their jobs. Those who will be mostly affected will be the ones without a proper employment letter and those who have put in at least 25 years into the service.
According to a source who spoke to Sahara Reporters, the downsizing is one of the conditions put forward by a would-be concessioner to the Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano airports.
The Federal Airpprts Authority, as at December 2015, had a total staff strength of 5,308. The number is split among technical, 1,153 (representing 21.72 percent); non-technical, 4154 (78.26 percent) and Executive staff, 1 (0.02 percent).
The agency as at last December had over N30billion in pension liabilities that were unfunded, while indebtedness of airlines to the agency has negatively impacted its finances and limited its ability to be self-sustaining.
In apparent preparation for the weeding out of old hands, FAAN in the last couple of months has engaged the services of staff in the announcement unit, security, commercial and protocol, among others. No fewer than 250 staff have been engaged in the past six months by the agency.