Nigeria’s new national airline is billed to take off in Aril 2022, all things being equal. The new national airline, called Nigeria Air, will have the government owing 5%, while local entrepreneurs would hold 46% with a strategic partner through a procurement process will take about 49% stake in the new venture.
The minister of aviation, Hadi Sirika, said recently, Nigeria hopes to sell a minority to a foreign airline or financial institution. He claims the plan of establishing a national carrier, which came on the table earlier but had to be suspended in 2018, is in line with one of President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2015 campaign promises
According to Sirika, the government will require initial capital of between $150 million and $300 million for the airline to take off.
It will be recalled that Nigeria, which is been seeking to create a hub in West Africa, wanted to set up a national airline and develop its aviation infrastructure – currently seen as a barrier to economic growth.
However, this has proved difficult owing to decades of neglect and lack of investment which have left Nigeria with low-quality infrastructure thereby creating an urgent need for its rehabilitation and upgrading requiring the support of private investors with ready and more than sufficient money to make that happen.
The West African country’s previous national carrier, Nigeria Airways, was founded in 1958 and wholly owned by the government. It ceased to operate in 2003.
British billionaire Richard Branson set up domestic and international carrier Virgin Nigeria in 2000, but pulled out in 2010 in frustration at what he said was interference by politicians and regulators.
The airline he created, which was later rebranded Air Nigeria, closed in 2012 after collapsing under about 35 billion naira ($85.4 million) of debt which left it unable to pay staff, a former finance director of the company told Reuters at the time.