Minister Recommits To Duty Waiver On Aircraft

The Minister of State
for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has reassured that the Federal Government would continue with the current policy of granting duty waivers on imported aircraft and spare parts in the aviation industry.
He said that government was well aware of the financing difficulties faced by the Nigerian airlines operators in the leasing of aircraft.
Sirika who made this known in Abuja while interacting with aviation stakeholders, said that airline operators had limited access to capital, and even at high interest rate of about 27 per cent
He said that airlines operators were also faced with inadequate number of aircrafts, while they have high debt profiles, pointing out that the government intends to set up an aircraft leasing company to assist these Nigerian airlines to have better access to leased aircraft for their operations.
Other areas of concern in the aviation sector, the minister also harped on are that of the supply and pricing of Aviation Jet A-one fuel, and the sourcing of foreign exchange by airlines for their operations and aircraft leasing.
The minister, on the Jet A-one fuel said that government had made arrangement to start local production of the fuel which is currently 100 per cent imported.
He also said that discussions were still on with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to make the foreign exchange and supply shortfalls to be easier for the airlines operators.
According to him, the worst affected on the issue of forex supply shortfall are foreign airlines operators because they operate and pay for several services in foreign exchange, which tickets are sold in naira locally, putting them at a disadvantage situation.