By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria is seeking private investors to set up a new national carrier as it expands its aviation sector, a Bloomberg report quoted Osita Chidoka, minister of aviation.
According to the report, Chidoka who spoke with Bloomberg TV Africa in an interview in New York and to be aired October 03 said Nigeria will spend about $2 billion over four years on rebuilding old airport terminals and constructing new ones as demand for travel grow.
‘’The government wants to start a national carrier within the same period to tap growth. It will be commercially run. Conversations are on across many possible private sector organisations, both local airlines in Nigeria and then some international airlines,” the aviation minister said.
The report says while the Ethiopian Airlines Enterprise and Kenya Airways Limited have emerged as global players in recent years, Nigeria has no major carrier since the liquidation of the Nigeria Airways about 10 years ago.
The report affirmed that Nigeria signed a $500 million loan agreement last year with the Export-Import Bank of China to fund new terminals in four cities including Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano. ‘’The contract was won by China Civil Engineering Construction Corp,’’ it said.
“We are totally changing the face of four key airports; Nigeria is studying the possibility of attracting private capital to do that,” Chidoka said.
The Nigeria’s aviation minister further affirmed that the government is also building 13 cargo airports across the country for the export of perishable agricultural produce such as pineapples, mangoes and tomatoes.
‘’About $1 billion has been provided by the state for the current plans, with another $1 billion earmarked within the project’s duration of four years, he said.
Nigeria Airways was liquidated in 2003 and replaced with Virgin Nigeria, a joint venture in which Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic Airways owned 49 percent stake and the airline changed its name to Air Nigeria in 2010 after Branson pulled out and it ceased flying two years ago.
The Bloomberg report said the number of air passengers traveling both domestically and internationally in Nigeria climbed up to 3.75 million last year from 520,263 in 2003, according to World Bank data.
“Privatisation of some operations of the airports may be on the cards, it will most likely be airport management, things like that, collecting of revenues, managing lounges. We have to build infrastructure that matches our aspiration,” Chidoka said.
