- By Halimah Olamide
Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo has reasoned that the commencement of the Lagos-London direct flight by Air Peace, will reduce the pressure on the Nigerian currency.
He stated this Friday night before the take off of the maiden flight of the airline.
The flight has aboard some well known Nigerians such as Chief Mike Ozekhome, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association and now governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Edo State, Olumide Akpata, actors and actresses and many others.
Speaking at the ceremony, Keyamo said that the Tinubu-led government is going to ensure that they support local operators in accessing aircraft lease arrangements like what Air Peace is doing.
Keyamo pointed out that Nigeria had been on the blacklist when it comes to dry lease arrangements because of the previous experiences of the lessors.
He said, “Nigeria is on a blacklist to get these dry leases. That is part of what I have been undertaking since I came. I have been trying to assure the world and aircraft manufacturers, like Airbus, that we can protect their assets when they bring them into Nigeria. This is because what they want is whether we can allow them to take these assets when there are breaches of agreements”.
“The problem they always face is that when they bring their assets into the country, and there is a breach sometimes, because of court injunctions and local politics, they can no longer take their aircraft away. It is a huge loss to them. What they want is that they should be able to take these assets away when there is a breach. How do we do this? It is the government that will assure these creditors that please bring in your aircraft.”
READ ALSO:
Air Peace Shows Off VIP Passengers in First London Direct Flight
Illegal mining going on in Borno despite ban – NSCDC
Lagos Taskforce Impounds 359 Motorcycles, Arrests Riders
Keyamo also noted that with Air Peace on the London route, there will be no problem with trapped funds, adding that the aviation company is a local company and that the government does not have to repatriate the sale of tickets to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
By doing so, the Minister stated that under such a situation, Nigeria would be liquid enough in terms of foreign exchange to repatriate those funds.
He said: “All the airlines that come into Nigeria, what they experience is massive repatriation of funds that puts pressure on the Naira because they have to seek for dollars, both the commercial banks and CBN.
This new development eases the pressure on Naira because this is a Nigerian company that deals in naira and buys in naira. The only problem is that they still have to go abroad whenever they want to service their aircraft. So one of my major objectives is to bring the MRO into Nigeria. That is very important. The key to unlocking this industry is to ensure that MRO comes into the country as quickly as possible. The Chinese, Arabs, and Americans are talking to us. They all want to come and do something. For now, we have a choice because everybody wants to come in and invest in Nigeria because of the new approach of governance to investors.
On why airlines that operated the London route previously did not survive, the Minister said “The reason why previous airlines on the London Route did not survive is not because of the politics of the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA). It is about access to aircraft on favourable terms. We are going to pray for Air Peace and pray for Allen that he can sustain this. This is because he is doing this at great expense, even at marginal profit or loss to challenge and it is going to get better”.