Foreign airlines operating in Nigeria have dismissed claims
by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it has successfully settled all outstanding foreign exchange (FX) obligations, saying that the status quo has remained.
President, Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria (AFARN), Kingsley Nwokeoma, said that as far as he was concerned, nothing has changed as regards clearing the trapped funds of foreign airlines.
“If they say they have cleared the trapped funds, they should show us figures. They should tell us how much have been cleared. The last I checked, the status quo still remains the same,” Nwokeoma said.
The acting Director of Corporate Communications at CBN, Hakama Sidi Ali, had disclosed on Wednesday that the financial regulator recently concluded the payment of $1.5 billion to settle obligations to bank customers, effectively settling the residual balance of the FX backlog.
But the chairman of Airlines and Passengers’ Joint Committee (APJC) of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Bankole Bernard, reportedly said that CBN’s claim is true, adding that the airlines’ trapped funds have been cleared.
According to him, the foreign airlines have been offered the option to get their funds from the banks using the rate of the I & E window, but have refused because the current I &E window rate is not the same they used to sell tickets.
Bernard said the airlines would be incurring losses if they collect the money using the I & E window, adding that it is the reason they stopped selling low inventory tickets but rather sold only high fares in order to recover their monies that had been lost as result of the current exchange rate.
Asked why Emirates has yet to resume flight operations in Nigeria, Bernard said: “Emirates cannot resume flight operations because of the diplomatic row they have with Nigeria. The rich and powerful still find their way to Dubai.
“The crimes Nigerians are committing in Dubai has made them refuse Nigerians from coming to Dubai. These crimes affect tourism. They do not want their country to be perceived as unsafe. Emirates still has their office in Nigeria and they have staff they are paying salaries,” he said.
Last year, the Air Transport Association (IATA) disclosed that Nigeria owes $812.2 million out of $2.27 billion trapped funds, making it the country with the highest trapped funds globally.
The top five countries that account for 68.0 percent of blocked funds include Nigeria ($812.2 million), Bangladesh ($214.1 million), Algeria ($196.3 million), Pakistan ($188.2 million) and Lebanon ($141.2 million).
