The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Sunday kicked against the Federal Government of Nigeria’s decision to exclude foreign airlines from its priority list when approving forex requests.
The association made this known at the 78th Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit held in Doha, Qatar on Sunday.
Speaking at the event, Kamil Al-Alawadhi the Regional Vice President for Africa & Middle East, IATA, said the decision to not prioritize the aviation sector, especially foreign airlines in forex requests was unacceptable, adding that the move could hurt the nation’s aviation industry.
According to him, blocked foreign airline funds in Nigeria stood at an estimated $208 million in the third quarter of 2021 and by the first quarter of 2022, this has risen to $283 million.
This Alawadhi said the Federal Government must start working on reducing as the aviation sector is a crucial sector of the economy responsible for thousands of job creation and it will be wrong to deny foreign airlines the opportunity to repatriate their revenue.
He, however, said officials of the association would visit Nigeria soon to discuss the matter, Investors King understands.
The IATA VP said, “Nigeria needs to start reducing the backlog. The Central Bank of Nigeria was not forthcoming on the blocked funds. It is sad that Nigeria owes the bulk of the entire blocked funds. This is very unacceptable”.
“We heard that there is a shortage of dollars. It has been a hectic ride. We met with the Vice-President. We will keep checking. This is going to damage the image of the country. We are hoping that it will go down well. The figure is huge”.
However, the issue was a result of a chronic forex shortage that have seen foreign exchange demand risen to a record-high and pushed the Naira to Dollar exchange rate to N610/$ at the black market despite the Central Bank of Nigeria’s efforts at converging rates.
