𝗥𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗗: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗮𝗻𝘇𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘇𝘆 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗺𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆'𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁
The government announced today that Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) will finally be handed over to the state-run Tanzania Airports Authority (TAA) tomorrow, but the real beneficiaries of KADCO, the company that operated the airport for 25 years and collected billions in revenues, remain shrouded in mystery
* KIA is the third-busiest airport in Tanzania and is the gateway to the country's main safari tourism hotspots in the northern circuit
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS:
✅ 11 March 1998, Kilimanjaro Airports Development Company Limited (KADCO) is registered at BRELA, with mystery shareholders Mott MacDonald International Ltd (99%) and Inter Consult Ltd (1%)
✅ Just 3 months after KADCO was registered (17 July 1998), it enters into a new shareholding agreement, where the Tanzania government got 24% of the shares of the company, Mott MacDonald International Ltd (41.4%), South Africa Infrastructure Fund (30%) and Inter Consult (T) Ltd (4.6%)
✅ On 10 November 1998, just 8 months after KADCO was established, the company signs a 25-year concession agreement with the Tanzania government, giving it exclusive rights to develop and operate KIA, despite having no track record nor previous experience in running an airport
✅ In 2006, the government reviewed the performance of KIA and discovered the following anomalies:
* Shareholders failed to invest in infrastructure upgrade at KIA, leading to poor performance of the airport
* KADCO was NOT PAYING any concession fee to the government for operating the airport despite collecting revenue. There was no concession fee clause in the agreement
* There is also no clause for TERMINATION of the concession in the agreement. The agreement only has a clause for renewal of the lease after every 15 years when the 25-year concession expires
* The concession agreement PROHIBITS the construction of any international airport within a 240km radius of any side of KIA, hence effectively giving KADCO exclusive rights to operate the only international airport in the region
✅ When government sought a review of the unconscionable terms of the concession agreement, the shareholders REJECTED any amendments. In 2009, the government decided to buy out the shareholders of the company and acquired 100% ownership of KADCO. It remains unclear how much the government PAID the shareholders to reliquish ownership
✅ KADCO continued to operate KIA, despite the government taking 100% ownership of the company amid audit queries from the CAG and Parliament on the WHEREABOUTS of revenue collected by KADCO as operator of the airport
✅ 9 November 2023, the Minister of Transport, Prof. Makame Mbarawa, announced in Parliament that KIA will now officially be handed over to TAA on 10 November 2023