Nigeria’s Aviation News Headline for Wednesday November 2, 2016



 

Domestic Airlines Seek $50m Grant from CBN’s Special Forex Window


Arik Air's CRJ1000. photo credit: www.arikair.com

Domestic airline operators in the country have appealed to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to allot the local industry at least $50million grant from the foreign exchange (forex) special intervention programme.
The airlines, while commending the take-off of the programme, said domestic operators deserved equally wider forex window like their foreign counterparts, given their more important role in development of the local economy.
Recall that the CBN, following agitations by stakeholders, in October intervened in the inter-bank forex market, granting concession to some sectors, through forward settlement.
Besides aviation, raw materials and machineries for manufacturing companies and agricultural chemicals are other beneficiaries.

The CBN’s Special Secondary Market Intervention Sales (SMIS) is, however, a one-off exercise dedicated to the clearance of the backlog of matured forex obligation for airlines, especially the international carriers that have funds stuck in Nigerian.
The Guardian yesterday learnt that the forex bidding processes opened about two weeks ago, with invitation sent to the airlines to place their request.
Some airlines, however, could not meet the deadline as the invitation allegedly came without prior notice and closed too soon.
For airlines that made submission, on the basis of naira, they could immediately pool their forex grants expected within 60 days.
Chairman of Arik Air, Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, said considering the need of the local airlines, they deserved more than what they had been given in the short period that the window was opened for bidding.
Arumemi-Ikhide stressed that all activities of the airlines, from maintenance to fuel and other services are denominated in foreign exchange.
http://guardian.ng/business-services/domestic-airlines-seek-50m-grant-from-cbns-special-forex-window

Arik: Our $8m Trapped in Angola, Sierra Leone

 arik

…Airlifts 19.5 million passengers in 10 years
Nigeria’s flag carrier, Arik, said it has deployed diplomatic option to get its $4.5 million trapped in Luanda, Angola just as there are indications that the carrier also has almost the same amount of money trapped in Sierra Leone.
Chairman of Arik Air, Sir Joseph Arumemi-Ikhide, made the disclosure to New Telegraph on the sidelines of press briefing on the 10th anniversary of the airline in Lagos, stressing that the carrier has made moves to recover its money in those countries.
He, however, stated that he was optimistic that the monies would be released, but noted that the trapped funds would have been more helpful to the carrier.
 As at two months ago, airlines trapped fund in Nigeria was close to $600 million, but the government released $300 million to the carriers that have scaled down their operations while others outrightly stopped their services because of recession that have made
people shun air travels.
https://newtelegraphonline.com/arik-our-8m-trapped-in-angola-sierra-leone

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