Foreign airlines and passengers operating in Nigeria heaved a sigh of relief over the weekend as the federal government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) averted what aviation experts say would have been a national catastrophe had they waited till the September 1 deadline foreign airlines operating in the country gave to freeze their services.

The airlines, over 32, had issued an ultimatum to withdraw their services in the country because of their withheld revenues which they had failed to repatriate due to hitches from the CBN.

For a start, Emirates, one of the most prominent, announced that from September, there would be no flight operations to or from Nigeria. A little later, British Airways ordered its ticket offices to stop sale of tickets to Nigeria or from Nigeria.

However, the apex bank a few days after on Friday stepped in to stop the impending danger by releasing $265 million to the airlines to settle outstanding ticket sales, it said in a statement.

The airlines had said they have millions trapped in Africa’s most populous nation due to an inability to access the foreign exchange to repatriate funds. The total trapped money is estimated at about $600m.

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Dubai based Emirates had said it will suspend its service to Nigeria from next month, and other carriers have reportedly cut back their capacity to the country due the difficulties in repatriating funds.

Nigeria, which gets 90% of its foreign exchange from oil, has struggled with a lack of foreign currency due in part to rampant pipeline theft that has cut oil exports by nearly half a million barrels per day to around 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd).

The International Air Transport Association said that by July Nigeria had blocked airlines from repatriating some $464 million in revenue.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry