Lack of effective board of directors bane of Nigerian airlines —AMCON MD

There are two major problems with the airlines in Nigeria, one being lack of an effective  Board of Directors, thereby affecting internal policies and discipline, the other problem has to do with regulation. These were the words of the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Asset  Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Mr Ahmed Lawan Kuru at the Nigeria Travelsmart Colloquium held in Lagos, last week.

According to Kuru, given the ownership structure of most airlines in Nigeria, the  Board’s veritable check on management and excesses of airline owners who show very little patience for orderly and planned conduct of business was practically absent.

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To Kuru, a functional Board was necessary for the effective operations of airlines with long-term survival and profitability objectives.

“Individuals with independence, experience and expertise from relevant sectors of the economy are not identified and engaged. From the Board/ownership to the committee clerk and loaders are populated  by relations and kinsmen of the owner. There is no internal process beside cash collection at the end of the day.

“On the other hand, regulations are either weak and lack the courage to enforce  compliance based on current standards or need more fine tuning to ensure effectiveness of the airline.

“The aviation industry is as important as the health industry  because it deals with the lives of travelers. It requires more regulation than even the banking industry.

“It is only in Nigeria that an Airline can abandon you at the airport for more than five hours without any recourse. Indeed, there are consequences for frequent cancellations. However, I cannot recall any airline punished in the recent past.

“Equally disturbing is the state  of the Aviation infrastructure.”

The AMCON boss did not spare the embarrassing state of infrastructure particularly the conveniences at the airports which he described as pathetic.

“To regular travelers, I am sure they are aware of the state of the airports, from the toilets to the jet bridge, it is rather pathetic! This is why some of us cannot understand why we have issues with concessioning of our airports. We have proven that we cannot manage even our toilets. It is common practise all over the world that the airports are privately managed.

“We should not spend our energy on who owns the concession company as long as our airports are managed according to global best practice. Lagos is strategically positioned to be the African hub, linking the Americans and the rest of the world.”

Speaking on the way forward, the AMCON MD insisted that for any change to be effected in the corporate governance of an airline, that it must be regulatory-driven since self-regulation has not worked so far.