Following the latest revelation from the leadership of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that Nigeria tops the list of the most indebted countries to foreign airlines globally, Nigerians have continued to react to the report.
Revealing the huge indebtedness of Nigeria and other countries at the ongoing 2023 Annual General Meeting of IATA in Istanbul, Turkey, the IATA Director General, Willie Walsh unveiled Nigeria as the highest debtor with accumulated $812.2 million belonging to the foreign carriers operating in Nigeria which got trapped in the country.
Reacting to the blocked funds, the President of Aviation Round Table (ART), a group made up of different professional groups in the sector, Dr Gabriel Olowo is proposing a barter arrangement between the Federal Government and the foreign carriers.
Olowo in his reaction suggested that one of the ways the new Government could remove Nigeria’s name from the embarrassment is for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to discuss a barter arrangement with the affected airlines.
According to him, CBN could engage the governments of the home countries of the foreign airlines separately to work out the payment schedule through crude oil exchange if it is legitimate.
The ART President cited how the Federal Government under the regime of Major General Muhammadu Buhari a similar situation in 1985 exploited the same option with Brazil and a few other countries when the country was confronted with foreign exchange crises.
Olowo declared: “This ever-growing airline home remittance and its attendant embarrassment on Nigeria by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), will it be out of place to think of barter?
“Engage the individual governments of these airlines if they will pay the airlines in exchange for our crude oil if it is legitimate. General Muhammadu Buhari at his first coming did barter trade with Brazil and others.”
The IATA’s latest information has continued to elicit reactions from Nigerians.
According to the IATA DG, Willie Walsh, Foreign Airlines trapped funds across the globe have skyrocketed to $2.27billion in April 2023 from the initial $1.55billion in April 2022 representing an increase of 47 per cent of what was obtained last year.
Speaking at the 2023 IATA Annual General Meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, the director general, Willie Walsh listed the six most indebted countries to foreign Airlines.
Walsh listed the topmost indebted five countries including Nigeria with $812.2 million followed by Bangladesh with $214 million in debts.
Other top indebted countries are Algeria with $196.3 million, Pakistan with $ 188.2 million and Lebanon with $141.2 million.
The debts the IATA DG said accounted for 68.0% of blocked funds.
He however described the rapidly rising levels of blocked funds as a threat to airline connectivity in the affected markets, saying: “Airlines cannot continue to offer services in markets where they are unable to repatriate the revenues arising from their commercial activities in those markets.
Governments need to work with industry to resolve this situation so airlines can continue to provide the connectivity that is vital to driving economic activity.”
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