Nigeria will penalise foreign carriers found selling tickets in hard currency in the West African country, warns Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika.
The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has been instructed to take undisclosed action against the perpetrators, he told reporters at State House in Abuja after a weekly Federal Executive Council meeting on September 7.
"Reports are reaching us that some of the airlines are refusing to sell tickets in naira. That is a violation of our local laws, [this] will not be allowed. The high and the mighty amongst them will be sanctioned if they're caught doing that. NCAA has been directed to swing into action, and once we find any airline violating this, we will definitely deal with them."
He claimed some foreign airlines blocked local travel agents from accessing their websites and only made expensive tickets available.
"They should also desist from writing to us and putting things on social media. They should go through diplomatic channels if they want a response from the Federal Government," he said.
His statements were an apparent reference to Nigeria's recent spat with Emirates (EK, Dubai International), which will resume passenger flights to Lagos on September 11 after the Central Bank of Nigeria agreed to partially refund USD85 million of the airline's withheld ticket revenue. Emirates had cancelled its flights to Lagos and Abuja on September 1, 2022, citing the unprofitability of its Nigerian operations in light of the blocked funds.
Nigeria eventually buckled under international pressure and released USD265 million it owed to international airlines, about 57% of the USD464 million it withheld in July 2022.
Sirika said that in 2016, foreign airlines remitted more than USD600 million to their home countries out of USD1.1billion made in Nigeria. Had this money been generated by a Nigerian flag carrier, it could have created many jobs.
Nigeria's foreign currency shortages come as the country has failed to fully capitalise on high prices for oil, its primary export. In July, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company said it registered zero revenue from crude oil sales for the first time ever, as compared to USD75.88 million in January 2022; USD13.05 million in February; USD88.93 million in March; USD14.70 million in April; USD5.7 million in May; and USD5.96 million earned in June. The Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) has blamed the paltry figures on low production rate, theft, and pipeline vandalism.
Meanwhile, he denied local news reports that the government had already spent NGN14.6 billion naira (USD34.1 million) taxpayer funds on establishing Nigeria Air (NWB, Lagos). Instead, costs to date have totalled NGN651 million (USD1.5 million) for transactional advisory services approved by the Federal Executive Council. He said the fees were yet to be disbursed as the consultants had not yet finished their work.
