Some of the operators, who lauded the initiative, told New Telegraph that the implementation does not clear the immediate problems of the airlines, adding that the modalities and availability of forex from Banks would determine its workability.
The Managing Director of Medview Airlines, Alhaji Muneer Bankole, said, “It is a welcome development but we hope it would be acted upon.” Another airline chief, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the policy would favour foreign carriers more than domestic operators.
Following the proposal sent by the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, the Federal Government finally secured a special sectoral allocation of forex for them in the Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) for Airline operators.
This is to further engender market confidence, ensure access to forex by the airlines and sustain the integrity of the Nigerian Inter-bank forex market. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also resolved pursuant to the Minister’s show of concern to intervene in the inter-bank forex market through forward settlement.
The Special Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) – Retail is an important one-off exercise dedicated to the clearance of the backlog of matured forex obligation for airlines.
Spokesman for the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Sam Adurogboye, in a statement, yesterday, said it is however worthy to note that other sectors were similarly availed priority in the inter-bank forex market, adding that these are raw materials and machineries for manufacturing companies and agricultural chemicals.
Adurogboye explained that the Director General, NCAA, Capt Muhtar Usman, had earlier led a delegation of Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to hold meetings with the Ministers of State for Aviation, Finance and their Petroleum counterparts, including the CBN Governor.
As a result of the meeting, Sirika was able to extricate for the foreign airlines 50 per cent clearance of their forex obligations, stressing that, “this present success is another step ahead in seamless operations in the aviation industry.”
He said it is expected that this is a major window for those airlines, who had earlier ceased their operations to recommence in earnest. Therefore, with this intervention, he said, comes a landmark incentive for both local and foreign operators to carry out safe, secure and lucrative operations in Nigeria.
“In addition, all scheduled and mandatory checks which are done in the Diaspora will be undertaken with this leverage at a reduced cost. The Director General of the Regulatory Authority, NCAA, therefore expects the foreign operators to carry out their operations with renewed vigour.”
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