Nigerian praised by IATA for allowing foreign airlines to repatriate funds trapped in the country

FOREIGN airlines operating in Nigeria have finally got some respite from the recent cash crunch after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) revealed that the country has repatriated the $600m belonging to them that was trapped in the country.

 

Between 2015 and last year, the Nigerian economy was in recession, leading the government to introduce foreign exchange controls, which hit airlines badly. Measure introduced prevented the airlines from repatriating the money they made, forcing several of them to suspend their operations in Nigeria.

 

Following the hardships the policy caused, it was revised, with airlines given concessions to enable them take their foreign exchange out of the country. Speaking at the 74th IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Sydney, Australia, IATA director-general Alexandre de Juniac, praised Nigeria for the move.

 

According to Mr de Juniac, the $600m backlog in Nigeria has been cleared and there has been $120m of progress from a peak of over $500m in Angola. He called on governments yet to clear theirs to abide by international agreements and treaty obligations to enable the airlines to repatriate their funds.

 

Mr de Juniac said: “I encourage the government of Angola to work with airlines to help to reduce this backlog further.  The connectivity provided by aviation is vital to economic growth and development.

 

"Aviation supports jobs and trade and helps people to lead better lives. However, airlines need to have confidence that they will be able to repatriate their revenues in order to bring these benefits to markets."

 

According to him, the amount of airline funds blocked in 16 countries totalled $4.9bn at the end of 2017. He said that five out of the 16 countries which owed the airlines included Venezuela ($3.78bn), Angola ($386m), Sudan ($170m), Bangladesh ($95m) and Zimbabwe ($76m).

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