The founder of United Nigeria Airline, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, says the $1 trillion target economy for Nigeria’s aviation sector by President Bola Tinubu is realisable with an enabling environment to achieve the objective.
Speaking at the 2025 annual retreat organised for staffers of the airline and the 4th anniversary of its maiden flight held in Abuja on Wednesday, he applauded President Tinubu for the revitalisation of the aviation sector in the country.
Okonkwo remarked that the foreign exchange policy introduced since the inception of the President Tinubu-led administration has positively impacted operators in the aviation sector.
Okonkwo pointed at teething challenges bedeviling the aviation sector, like access to foreign exchange and the trapped fund saga with foreign operators that gave Nigeria a negative image in the comity of nations, which were resolved with Tinubu at the helm of affairs in the country to buttress his assertion.
Okonkwo further stated that operators no longer go through the nightmare of accessing foreign exchange from the banks to offset bills and fulfill their obligations to their partners abroad.
Okonkwo, who heaped praises on the Aviation Minister, Mr. Festus Keyamo, for putting in place measures aimed at protecting the interest of domestic operators in the country, recalled that when the airline made its maiden flight on February 12, 2021, it remained the most difficult time in aviation history due to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic across the world.
He expressed optimism that Nigeria would get its fair share of the gross domestic product (GDP), running into trillions of naira, contributed by the industry across the world.
Calling on the authorities to consider a single-window source of loans for the country’s aviation industry in tandem with global best practices, he canvassed a 3 per cent interest rate for operators as against the 30 percent being charged by financial institutions in the country.
He said, “We have no doubt that if they continue in this direction, the aviation industry would achieve the $1 trillion economy that Mr. President is targeting. It is in the world that the aviation industry—you have to equate it like a country. It’s about $17 trillion GDP all over the world.
“It might as well be about the 15th richest country in the world. It’s huge. The Nigerian portion of the cake is still very small. It’s small because the local operators in Nigeria have not been fully supported.
“We think that the way we are going, beyond access to finance, I still think that the government should consider a low-interest source of loans for the aviation industry.
“We don’t need grants; we don’t want the government to give us money. Aviation is one all over the world, and we are competing with other operators who have access to loans. If you have to go to the bank today, it should not be anything less than 30 percent. The profit is very minimal.
“You can’t even survive with that. If this remains, it would continue to suppress our opportunity to maximize this beautiful policy of Mr. President in the aviation sector, championed by the Minister, Festus Keyamo.”
Okonkwo, who is angling for the governorship of Anambra State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), thereby stepped aside from his role as chairman of the airline during the retreat, with emphasis on innovation, digital transformation, and leadership development.
(The Guardian)
