Nigeria's Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development has told visiting officials from Boeing and AerCap that lessors will soon be able to recover assets from the country more easily if a customer defaults.

According to the Nigerian Tribune outlet, the minister, Festus Keyamo, gave the guarantee when meeting with the officials and the chairman of Air Peace (P4, Lagos). Earlier this year, ch-aviation reported that Air Peace was in talks with Boeing over a potential B787 order. Many lessors are unwilling to deal with Nigerian carriers because of past difficulties in recovering assets. Nigeria is a signatory to the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment (the Cape Town Convention). However, in 2007, the government legislated changes to their domestic laws that prioritised local employees and suppliers ahead of international entities, allowing them to place liens on company assets during default disputes.

However, Keyamo told his guests that "this was a new government and a new era" and that the government would guarantee the release of lessors' assets to their owners from any defaulting Nigerian airline. He said offering lessors certainty would benefit local airlines and allow them to better compete with non-Nigerian carriers. ch-aviation fleets data shows that there are 201 large commercial aircraft on the Nigerian registry, spread across 29 carriers. Most, but not all, are owned by the airlines or government. However, some lessors, such as Standard Chartered Aviation Finance, CIAF Leasing, AerCap, ATR Leasing, SKY Leasing, and Oceanic Capital have a presence in the market. AerCap has eight B737s placed at Air Peace. It is the largest active aircraft lease deal in Nigeria.

Separately, Keyamo has also this week announced a raft of new directors at aviation agencies, including 11 new directors at the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, eight new directors at the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, eight new directors at the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau, and 11 new directors at the Federal Airports Authority Of Nigeria. Earlier this month, the government sacked the previous directors of these agencies, including the agency heads, over safety concerns.

ch-aviation has contacted Minister Keyamo for comment.