The Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika, says the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has so far released the sum of 5 billion Naira out of 22 billion Naira initially approved by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, to stakeholders in the aviation sector.
Sirika said this on Thursday at the Special weekly briefing organized by the Presidential Communication Team at Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the funds which have since been shared by stakeholders in the sector, cutting across all the various service providers is part of a special bailout fund owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sirika explained that the government came to the decision to bail out the sector when it was discovered that the sector was near collapse as it was one of the worst-hit during the pandemic.
He also accused most of the service providers, especially local airlines of heavy indebtedness to the Federal Government, to the tune of N37billion.
According to Sirika, Arik Air, Bi-Courtney among others tops the list of debtors, but Federal Government has not weird the big stick in order not to be accused of stifling the sector.
The Minister also gave clues that a National carrier for Nigeria may come on stream by 2022.
He said contrary to insinuations that the project has been abandoned, the government only took steps to review the take-off plans in order not to repeat the same mistakes by the defunct Nigerian Airways.
Giving further insights into the suspension of Emirates Operation in Nigeria, Sirika said government came to the resolution because the company was being biased in its approach to dealing with Nigerian travellers.
He said with the 200 million travelling population from Nigeria, and the huge foreign exchange from travelers, we cannot afford to be hoodwinked to their own terms and conditions.
The Minister noted that the government is in the process of developing a policy to right flying of drones in Nigeria in order to protect the airspace from external incursion.
He said the regulations being proposed would forbid individuals and organizations from operating drones without approval by the NCAA, which is the apex aviation regulatory authority.
