By Renn Offor
Photo Caption: L-R: Mrs. Adelola Adewale, Vice President Lagos; Mr. Kabir Maiwada, 2nd Vice President; Mr. Olumiya Salami PRO; Mr. Bankole Bernard, National President; Mr. Abdullahie Zackary, Treasurer; Mrs. Suzana Akporaye, 1st Deputy President; Alhaji Abdulahie Aliu, Vice President, Northern Zone.
It is no longer news that the Nigerian travel industry is going through a quagmire of troubles threatening to collapse the sector and which has on its trail the uncertain future of 300,000 workers. It is against this background that the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), in its maiden media parley with journalists has set forth an agenda of advocacy that would salvage the sector from a total collapse.
It would be recalled that Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), had on the 24th May revealed that the apex bank intends to aggressively mop up liquidity surplus in the nation’s banking system before unveiling any new foreign exchange (FX) policy. And that President Muhammadu Buhari on 2nd June gave monetary authorities the go ahead to begin implementing their plans to re-introduce flexibility in Nigeria’s foreign-exchange market. This was contained in a report by BusinessDay.
While the Federal government continues to grapple with the introduction of a new FX policy, which has since led to forex crisis in the country, airlines in Nigeria have continued to suffer as they struggle with the issues of raising foreign exchange to be able meet statutory checks even as the foreign airlines continue to suffer as they have about $600 million foreign exchange trapped in Nigeria; forcing several of them to begin withdrawing their airlines from the Nigerian airspace.
According to Thisday investigations some Nigerian airlines are unable to bring back their aircraft taken abroad for routine maintenance due to their inability to pay outrageous maintenance bills, which have tripled because of the low value of Naira. It learnt that some aircraft have been in different maintenance facilities in Europe, South Africa, Middle East and the US. Some of the airplanes, according to source, had spent more than one year in these facilities.
Also, several sources at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) confirmed this development, adding that about 25 percent of existing aircraft owned by commercial airlines are on maintenance or AOG (aircraft on ground) either because they are no more airworthy or are due for maintenance.
A major challenge facing the airlines is that they generate revenues in Naira whereas they carry out maintenance and purchase major aircraft parts in foreign currency. So with the low value of the Naira, the airlines are paying more than twice the maintenance cost they used to pay to carry out C-Check on their aircraft.
According to ThisDay, also, recently the Chairman of Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON), Captain Nogie Meggison called on the federal government to make dollars available for the airlines and warned of the dire consequences if airlines are unable to access forex to carry out critical activities like aircraft maintenance.
He also said that the consequence is safety breach, which may lead to air crashes, as the airlines may resort to cutting corners in order to keep their aircraft in the air.
NANTA, in its advocate efforts to urge the federal government to initiate speedy moves to arrest the dangerous trend in the sector before it gets out of hand have pointed four distinguished areas government should concentrate its efforts and tackle. The areas are the Government aspect, the Airline aspect, the Travel Agency aspect and the travelling public aspect.
On the government aspect, NANTA said that there is need for review of policies which incapacitated the airlines from having access to foreign exchange from CBN which is completely against the bilateral agreement the government has established with these foreign countries, which states that they have full access to repatriation of their investment as well as proceeds.
However, according to NANTA, the Government has not kept to this part of the bargain which has caused hardship on the industry as well as the travelling public. And the government having the notion that air transport is a luxury good is misconception; because as of today, air transportation has conveniently made life easier for us, even within the country: to move around.
The effects of government policies affect both local and foreign airlines. That fact that the local airlines are not complaining now does not mean they are not feeling the heat. Therefore, we are of the opinion that Government should put them in consideration for them to have access to foreign exchange through the CBN window
The government needs to come up with flexible policies that will save our industry from 300,000 jobs at risk due to airlines leaving the country. Also we appeal to government to collect their taxes which are being paid in dollar by these airlines in naira which is our local currency, since the country does not have enough dollar reserve to support these foreign airlines. Therefore, all the charges to NCAA, FAAN, and NAMA, should be collected in local currency. ¬This in effect will reduce the pressure. Likewise, the government appealing to other foreign companies to do most of their transactions that is done locally in naira.
The government is equally losing revenue to neighboring countries as tickets can be purchased from outside the country and once that is done, the taxes on such tickets will not go to the government through the withholding tax they would have benefited from such transaction.
They made a clarion call that the issue of a national carrier should be looked into, the government can look into private public partnership; this can be used as a national carrier pending when we have a full-fledged carrier just like what is obtainable in Togo through Asky airlines.
On the airline aspect, ‘NANTA is saying that we’re using this medium to persuade and appeal to the airlines to exercise more patience. We understand the business environment has been very unfriendly. It is a trying time for Nigeria as a nation; they should bear with us as we go through this face of transformation.
‘It is a known a fact that they got the fingers burnt in Venezuela but we cannot compare the economy of Venezuela and that of Nigeria as our circumstances differ and our economy changes. Nigeria still remains the biggest economy in Africa and as such there is already a paradigm shift on the part of government to curb corruption as well as decrease the nation’s dependence on foreign goods.
‘We equally use this opportunity to appeal to the airlines not to dollarize our economy by requesting trade partners to purchase tickets in dollars on behalf of their clients that further mount pressure on the source of dollar as naira still remains the preferred currency in our market.
‘We are also using this opportunity to appeal to them to make sustainable investment in Nigerian economy like some of their counterparts have done, e.g. Lufthansa provides maintenance repair and overhaul for some of our local carriers’.
For the travel agencies, the travel association appealed to members to desist from dollar sales. ‘We understand they have to remain in business as they also understand the peculiarity of the period but we are appeal that we need to stand together as one against those airlines that have insisted that we sell in dollar to those that permit us to sell in naira. All these will reduce the impact on our business pending when the issues are resolved.
‘The association will continue to give relevant support to the members while mounting pressure on the government to come up with favourable policies that will keep us in business’.
Finally, dwelling on the issues about the traveling public, NANTA said that, ‘We are fully aware that the Nigerian travelling publics have developed a culture for travelling; we know they feel the body of the huge cost of tickets since the airlines is not displaying cheap fares.
‘We appeal to them to fly other airlines that are still making cheap fares available in this period we are trying to restore sanity to the industry. We honestly hope with this, we all can embrace the African carriers as well as African destinations’.
TAG: African Travel Business, African tourism, Nigerian travel agents , NANTA, Bernard Bankole, American travel association, tourism in Africa, Kenyan markets , Nigerian tourism , African Airports , NCAA, African aviation, FAAN, AON,
