Minister admits fund paucity to tackle aviation sector infrastructure

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo has admitted that there is paucity of funds to adequately take care of all infrastructure needs in the aviation industry.

Keyamo made the disclosure while fielding questions from our correspondent after receiving New Telegraph’s Minister of the Year (Transformative Leadership) award in Lagos at the weekend  said all the ministries are facing infrastructure problems and have the envelop system that cannot carry all aviation infrastructure.

He however stated that the government would continue to attract private investors into all of these sectors that deal with dearth of infrastructure not only in the aviation industry but other sectors.

“What do we do? We must continue to attract private investors into all of these sectors that deal with infrastructure and that is what we are poised to do. So, we are clear about our objective. We are not confused as to where we are going in terms of our policy direction.

The Minister equally stated that his policy direction is to promote local airlines interest by putting in place more robust policy that would drive the carriers to profitability.

He explained that by doing that, his Ministry has helped to ensure that the country complies with Cape Town Convention which he said has brought, “Us from 49% worldwide in terms of global compliance to 75.5% which is highest in Africa. We have to keep evolving policies, generating policies because that is what governments actually do, policies to encourage the sector and spur everybody in the sector to grow.”

 “We have the highest score in Africa in terms of global compliance. We have opened up so many routes now. Before now, we can’t even go from Nigeria to Cameroon, our next door neighbours. We had to go all the way to Togo or elsewhere. We have fought so hard and that is expected to happen with Air Algerie now.”

“They are going to go Algiers, Abuja and Cameroon. We fought to get that happen. We are opening up so many routes for Nigerians and others. The aviation sector is so big. It is like a big elephant from policy to infrastructure and directions and decisions to move the sector forward.”

September last year, the Federal Government signed the Cape Town Convention Practice Direction. The reaction of the government to find an urgent solution to the bad image of the country in the aviation business prompted the review of the country’s aviation processes that helped to restore albeit temporarily the image of the sector.

One of the first moves was for the country to be a signatory to the Cape Town Convention which gives the country’s airline operators easy access to aircraft on a lease basis.

In the past, some operators rushed to seek an injunction in a law court, making it extremely difficult for repossession. This earned the country opprobrium, leading to a blacklist by aircraft lessors, particularly the Aviation Working Group, co-chaired by Airbus and Boeing.

The operators’ default to adhere to the terms and conditions of aircraft lessors made it extremely difficult to trust the country’s operators with their airplanes because of the fear of not getting them back again and in the same condition as before the lease.

The CTC Practice Direction was signed by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Terhemba Tsoho, during a stakeholders’ meeting of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Many stakeholders  expressed joy with the CTC Practice Direction and lauded the Federal Government for taking the Cape Town Convention treaty a notch further saying it would help the airlines to acquire more aircraft, reduce the high premium on insurance for leased aircraft and generally revitalize the sector.

Wole Shadare