Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has given the assurance that the federal government will see to it that trapped funds of foreign airlines are released to them very soon .
According to him, the government was doing everything possible to ensure the funds are repatriated to the affected airlines.
The minister stated this on Thursday in Abuja on the second day of the 7th Aviation Summit hosted by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
As at May 2023, the total trapped funds of foreign airlines in the country was over $500 million and at least two foreign airlines had ceased operations into Nigeria because of the debts, while a few others had to reduce frequency of flights into the country.
Keyamo said President Bola Tinubu was concerned about the trapped funds and it was one of the reasons he (Tinubu) visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE), recently.
“I spoke with the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and he has given an indication that within the next few weeks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will be very clear as to the programme within which these issues will be addressed.
“They will be paid off, these are not loans, they are trapped funds; they are funds that are there, it is only the issue of liquidity that is our problem. And the issue of liquidity is being addressed as I speak right now. It is something that the President is very concerned about, and that issue, I said that we have addressed it in the UAE and very soon, you will hear from the financial sector,” he said.
Keyamo further stated that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) carriers would return to the Nigerian routes very soon, but the government is insisting on reciprocity based on the Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) arrangements with the two countries.
According to the minister, the UAE Government had agreed to give to Nigerian carriers any routes they requested for, but said it must be based on reciprocity.
“All kinds of permission will be taken from local authorities and of course, I made the point in speaking with them and I made it clear that they will have to give our airlines reciprocal rights under our Bilateral Air Service Agreements (BASAs).
“That is the point I insisted on, and they did say that any spot we need, they will give us as much as we give them those spots within Nigeria,” the minister added.
