Over $700 Million Trapped as Foreign Airlines Accused FG of Blocking Repatriation

During a meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Foreign Airlines operators accused the Federal Government of blocking the repatriation of over $700 million from ticket sales.

In an interactive session on Monday, Samson Fatokun, who spoke on behalf of foreign airlines, stated that the government must obey the international laws and treaties governing the aviation sector. 

He noted that under the BASA principle, the Nigerian government has an obligation to support the airlines to repatriate their funds in the US dollar.

“As of today, after the CBN intervention of August 29, we have about $700 million in blocked funds. This is astronomically high and it is the highest in the world.

There is no country in the world that has that amount of blocked funds. Nigeria accounts for 32% of the trapped funds in the world.” he said.

Investors King recalled that Emirate Airlines had planned to stop operations in Nigeria over $85 million trapped funds until the intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Similarly, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), had criticised the Nigerian Government for its failure to allow international airlines to repatriate their profits, warning that it may cause the country more damage.

In a statement on its official Twitter handle, IATA said it was “disappointed” that the Nigerian government did not heed its warnings to allow the timely repatriation of the funds.

Meanwhile, local operators who were at the meeting, however, disagreed with their foreign counterparts. 

Speaking on behalf of the local operators, the CEO of Airpeace, Allen Onyema said local operators are more patriotic and can perform better if given the opportunity. 

He noted that some countries like the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates are not reciprocating the bilateral agreement in the aviation sector. 

Furthermore, the founder of United Nigeria Airlines, Obiora Okonkwo noted that foreign airlines should use the Importer and Exporter I&E window to source for dollars instead of waiting for the CBN to give them dollars.