New investors for Nigeria’s aviation industry By LAWANI MIKAIRU & DANIEL ETEGHE(Vanguard)

The Nigeria aviation sector will soon witness new influx of investors as the Federal Ministry of Aviation is currently in talks with potential investors that have indicated interest in investing in the sector. Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), Engineer Mazi Nnamdi Udoh, who disclosed this to newsmen last week, said arrangements are in top gear to absorb newer airlines into the country.
Speaking at the Special General Meeting of National Association of Aeronautical Engineers (NAAE) held at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) Annex, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, he said the interest being indicated by the investors was a fallout of the road show embarked upon by the Ministry of Aviation and top officials of the agencies in the sector to some countries abroad.
He said: “The issue is all about the management of those airlines, that is why in the spirit of transformation, we are now helping those airlines and new ones to come back to business and also provide them with an enabling environment so that those airlines will not go underground again.
And that is why we also embarked on a road show to various counties and the response has been enormous. We hope in the next one year, the issue of how many airlines we have in Nigeria will be a thing of the past. There are a lot of airlines that are coming, they are already asking for registration.”
Asked if the decline in domestic operators has impacted the revenue generation of the agencies in the sector, Udoh stated that the revenue generation of the agencies has improved despite the reduction in domestic operators. He said the passenger traffic in the airports have grown from what was obtainable last year, adding that the chunk of revenue generated by the agencies is from foreign carriers in the sector.
“Generally, the more the passengers carried by international flights, the more they pay. The revenue actually is foreign-driven for us and for FAAN. We are actually not feeling the impact of the reduction of domestic passengers. It all just means more frequencies for those that are operating.
But one thing you must notice also is the general growth in the charter service which we are also looking at to capture what is there. If you go round the country, you will see a lot of private jets. So the impact of that is not visible, that is why we have to capture it at this level and restore growth in domestic operation.”
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/09/new-investors-for-nigerias-aviation-industry