Nigeria Air gets takeoff date at last

Anthony Iwuoma

The proposed Nigeria Air will, at last, commence operations in April 2022.

This follows the approval of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, on Wednesday.

Sen. Hadi Sirika, the Minister of Aviation, alongside Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, and Dr. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the FEC meeting on Wednesday, the decision on the Nigeria Air

President Muhammadu Buhari presided over the FEC meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

Sirika announced the equity distribution of the Nigeria Air project as Strategic equity partners, 49 per cent; Nigerians,  46 per cent while the Federal Government would own the remaining five per cent.

According to the aviation minister, Nigeria Air, when operational, would generate over 70,000 jobs, saying, “is higher than the total number of civil servants that we’ve in the country”.

“Today in Council, the Ministry of Aviation presented two memoranda. The first one is approval for the award of contract for the provision of Automated Civil Aviation Regulatory Equipment, including the software support and training, which will be located at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja,” Sirika said.

“In summary, this is the software that’ll allow all of the activities of civil aviation regulations to be done electronically on one platform, including payments, follow-ups on personnel licenses, medicals, economic regulation of airlines, safety regulations of airlines and all other businesses within the envelope of civil aviation, will be monitored by this single software. So, that has been approved.

READ ALSO: The proposed Nigeria Air will, at last, commence operations in April 2022.

“This one also is the approval of the Outline Business Case for the establishment of the National Carrier.”
Controversy had trailed the issue of the national carrier since the six years of the Buhari administration.

This is the third time that Sirika had made similar promises to Nigerians, who can only hope that this time the much-anticipated Nigeria Air project eventually takes off the ground.