ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria will open up its government-owned airports to private investment, the minister of aviation said on Monday, as the capital’s airport prepares to close for repairs after years of neglect.

All government-owned airports will be offered to investors who have “the wherewithal, the know-how, the technology, the capacity, the ability, the finance to put up huge fantastic edifices as airports with everything including hotels, just the way you see them abroad,” said Hadi Sirika, Nigeria’s aviation minister, at a news conference in the capital of Abuja.

Sirika did not specify when the government airports would be opened to investment, or provide any other details.

Abuja’s airport is set to close for six weeks for repairs on the runway, after it had become so damaged that international carriers were pulling their services or warning they may soon have to.

Two days before the repairs begin, workers were still needing to fit electrics, seating and toilets to a new terminal at Kaduna, which will handle the capital’s air traffic but lacks capacity.

(Reporting by Camillus Eboh; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Hugh Lawson)