Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has demanded that countries should adhere to the Bilateral Aviation Services Agreement (BASA).
Emefiele made the demand during a meeting with the leadership of the House of Representatives, the International Air Transportation Association, Nigerian Airlines Operators, and the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika.
The CBN governor lamented that Nigerian airlines were barred from entering other countries with whom Nigeria has BASA agreements.
He also claimed that the bank has always given foreign airlines priority in repatriating their funds since 2016. He emphasized that the bank prioritized the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in allocating foreign money.
What the CBN is saying
Emiefele recalled that because of the recession of 2016, he informed the airlines that there would be delays in the repatriation of funds while assuring them that their monies would not be lost. He said:
- “On a particular day, I took a decision to allocate 265 million dollars to foreign airlines. On that day, we allocated 322 million dollars to IATA through UBA; Qatar Airways got 22.8 million dollars through Standard Chartered Bank.”
- “Emirates Airline got 19.6 million dollars through Access Bank; British Airways got 5.5 million dollars through Guaranty Trust Bank; Virgin Atlantic Airline got 4.8 million dollars through Zenith Bank,’’ he added.
He noted that the main problem has to do with not granting Nigerian airlines the opportunity to fly into other countries with which the government has a BASA agreement.
He stressed that disallowing Nigerian airlines the opportunity to operate foreign flights was choking the country.
- He said, “When you allow Nigerian airlines to fly into other countries, they charge in naira, and that is what we expect foreign airlines operating in Nigeria to do. But under the BASA, every penny the foreign airline sells in tickets must be converted to dollars and taken away.”
- “But if Nigerian airlines charge in naira, it does not have to convert to dollars, and so that naira sits here; that is why we are saying countries with which we have agreement must respect BASA. You cannot be landing 21 flights into Nigeria, and you do not allow any Nigerian airline to land in your country.”
- “And when the Nigerian airlines land, you intimidate them with sniffer dogs and do not allow them to carry out maintenance checks,’’ he lamented.
Emiefele emphasized that such conduct was making life challenging for Nigeria and also represented exploitation of the nation, which boasts the largest market, population, and economy in all of Africa.
A portion of the funds had already been disbursed, according to the governor, and more will be made available to foreign airlines towards the end of October.
The Governor stated that the situation in the aviation industry was a global problem and that the global picture was becoming more gloomy due to the growing global slowdown.
What you should know
- The BASA is a treaty that two countries sign to permit commercial international air transport services between their territories. A clause in a bilateral agreement may specify the routes an airline may fly, the number of flights it may operate, and the number of airlines that may use those routes.
- The signing of BASA with the United States, India, Morocco, and Rwanda was announced by the federal government in October 2020.
- An agreement between Nigeria and Canada for bilateral air service was authorized by the Federal Executive Council in July 2022.
- Also, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the signing of a BASA between Kuwait and Nigeria.
We repeat: foreign countries, businesses, are here to rape us.
We produce crude oil? Fine, internal saboteurs will make sure we keep importing refined petroleum products, so that the dollars we earned returned to sender. ( End SARS promoters even wanted to burn down Dangote’s refinery)
Whoever wants to patronise foreign airlines should source their dollars outside the CBN.
Is it not enough haemorrhage that we have to pay MTN, AIRTEL in dollars for talking to ourselves internally?
Being brainless is the greatest tragedy that can befall a people.