Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
Abuja-The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, has disclosed that the proposed national airline for Nigeria will begin operations come December 19, 2018.
This is just as he clearly stated, that the name of the national carrier, logo, brand, colour scheme,structure as well as type of airplanes, will be unveiled on July 18,2018.
The Minister who made these disclosures over the weekend, during the presentation of the certificate of compliance for the Outline Business Case by the Director General,Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission(ICRC), Engr. Chidi Izuwah, said that the national carrier is expected to make profit from the third year of operation.
According to him, “By the grace of God, if all things are equal, by December 19,2018, we will have the first set of airplanes flying and we will increase the airline. This airline will start slow and steady, it will grow and then from the business case that we have seen, this airline is expected by year three(3) to begin to make profit.
“We will make the investment and we will be patient enough to follow the business plan and understand the management of private sector. The intent of this also is to get to the 30 aircraft mark in the next five years.
“We will begin slowly with a minimum of three to five aircrafts. Maybe the day we will be launching, we launch with three or five airplanes and we will continue building the airline by adding air planes” he said.
He further assured that, regardless of the funding from the government, the management of the airline will never be in the hands of government,adding that they will never go back to what Nigerian Airwaves used to be.
“The outline business case is very clear and I assure Nigerians that whatever we are doing in this ministry, is in accordance with the law and transparently done so. Therefore, they are at liberty to query me or to ask the Ministry to give them information on anything they think is shrouded in secrecy.
“Having a world class airline is extremely important in the scheme of things. We are determined not to go wrong and to have everything in place according to the law” Sirika added.
The Minister, while stating that the airline if established, will take advantage of the Financial Air Services Agreement that Nigeria has with over 70 countries and also take advantage of the Single Africa Air Transport Market, called on the private sector to see the National Carrier as a competition.
“It is not intended to kill business, it is intended to promote business, to compete in the business” he emphasized.
On his part, the Director General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Engr. Chidi Izuwah, said that the certificate confirms that the Ministry has complied fully with the requirements of the ICRC Acts.
He further noted that in certifying the business, the airline will not be like the Nigerian airwaves nor like the old national carriers. “This will be a private sector managed airline. We have made it very clear in our certificate that it will have a strategic world class equity partner who will manage, operate and make the management decisions”.
He stressed that the certificate clearly states that there will be zero contribution by the government to the decisions of the management, adding that the management will have the free hand to run the airline as a clear, visible and bankable business.
“There will also be zero management control by the government over this airline, it will be about private sector airline so these are very stringent conditions we put in the certificate and the certificate requirement is that if those conditions are violated, we invalidate the certificate, we invalidate the process.
“This airline would require the government to put forward viability gap funding and upfront financing which will move straight and then leverage private sector finance to be able to deliver the airline” he remarked.
Izuwah further said, “What this certificate permits you to do, we have approved for you to go into procurement and go through the RFQ, RFP process as defined in the certificate to now procure the strategic equity partner from the private sector, a word class one.
“Nigeria is looking for a world class airline that will carry our Nigeria flag around the world and establish ourselves as the nation of power. We look at the aviation sector that will contribute close to 20 percent of our GDP. As we put this certificate forward, we wish Nigeria well” he ended.
