The foreign airlines’ $600 million trapped funds in the country have continued to gain momentum with one of the unions holding sway in the country’s aviation sector, the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) has drawn the attention of the federal government to the colossal losses awaiting the country through job losses and imminent hardship should the foreign airlines pull out from the country.
In a letter signed and issued to the government through the minister of aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika through NUATE’s General Secretary, Comrade Ocheme Aba, titled: ‘Foreign Airlines Trapped Dollars: A Looming Catastrophy-Call For Extraordinary Action’, the union while describing the trapping of the $600 million in Nigeria as an ugly situation, cautioned against further allowing the airlines to further reduce their frequencies to Nigeria as a way for them to prevent further accumulation in the trapped funds in Nigeria.
According to the Union; “The ugly situation of hundreds of millions of dollars earned by foreign airlines operating into Nigeria, but which they have been unable to repatriate due to Nigeria’s foreign exchange challenges has already been blown out by local and foreign media, bringing colossal collateral damage to Nigeria’s image. And we find it ineluctable to weigh into the matter, being the trade union to which all workers in the foreign airlines belong. As such our stake in this imbroglio is, without question, much higher than most other stakeholders.
“However, we feel obliged to mention the threat to the employment and livelihood of thousands of workers of these foreign airlines should there result in further significant reductions, or outright shutdown, of operations of these airlines. We must also mention the concomitant losses (not excluding jobs) that would accrue to several service providers who are dependent on, almost entirely, foreign airlines – ground handling, inflight catering, logistics, aviation security, etc. This, unfortunately, is already visible from the reductions in operations that have come into effect in the past weeks resulting from the impasse.
“It is important to state that we are very mindful of current difficulties being experienced by the State with regard to the acute shortage of foreign exchange earnings. We also recognize that there are no straight fixes available. But, in view of the apparent calamity that will surely befall the nation if the situation is not ameliorated quickly enough, we urge you to prevail on the Federal Government to take extraordinary measures to resolve the quagmire. Such a measure could include the use of crude oil swap to defray the backlog in the first instance.”
While calling on the government not to be cowered by the enormity of the situation, and other problems presently mitigating the sector’s projected growth, NUATE acknowledges the fact that the development must have preoccupied the minister and thus efforts to find a lasting solution to the issue, emphasized the many dangers the continuation of this very adverse situation posed to the health of the aviation sector, the national economy, and Nigeria’s standing in the comity of nations.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
$600 million trapped funds: Use crude oil swap to defray backlog ― Union
and then