Uganda Airlines is preparing to launch flights to Nigeria after a bilateral agreement was reached between the governments of Uganda and Nigeria.
The deal, which also involves Nigeria Airways, allows for reciprocal flight operations between the two countries. Ismail Ayobami Alatise, the Nigerian ambassador to Uganda, confirmed the recent development.
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According to newvision.co.ug, He said the key motive behind the deal is deepening bilateral relations and trade between the two countries. Alatise made the revelation during a press conference at Uganda Media Centre on Tuesday. Trade between the two countries currently stands at $24m (about shillings 88 billion), according to the United Nations COMTRADE database.
Uganda’s exports to the West African country are mainly agricultural products including tobacco, hides and skins, as well as electronics, while it imports mainly float glass and textiles. “Whatever you do in business, expansion is the key word. If you have capital of one million dollars, the interest is that you should be able to multiply maybe by three, which we call business expansion,” he said.
So, to do this, we have to bring everything to the table and make sure that we promote Intra trade among various entities in Africa. We want to eliminate a lack of intra-Africa trade because it doesn’t pay us. It is regarding our development,” he added.
Uganda revived its airline in 2018 and it started operating passenger flights on August 28, 2019. It currently operates over ten regional flights namely Nairobi, Juba, Mogadishu and Dubai as the only international route. However, the airline anticipates commencing flights to Guangzhou, UK and Rwanda among other countries.
