N4bn palliative for aviation industry not acceptable - Olowo

Gabriel Olowo, chairman Interguide Group, president/CEO Sabre West Africa and president of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ART), has said the proposed N4 billion palliatives for the aviation sector is insufficient.

Hadi Sirika, minister of aviation, had said the federal government approved a N4 billion bailout fund for domestic airlines to mitigate the adverse effects of Covid-19 pandemic on them.

However, Olowo explained that domestic airlines alone owed about N22 billion to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), adding that in business losses, they had lost N360 billion as a result of the pandemic.

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“Reasonable countries intervened in their aviation industries in the second or third month. This is the eighth month and Nigeria is just responding. I think the government should just leave us to die. Then we will know Nigeria has no aviation industry. The N4 billion palliative for the aviation industry is very insensitive.

“The airline industry is not made up of aeroplanes alone; there are allied services, and people that produce on-board service are part of it. There are those who produce distribution, which we call ‘sales and marketing.’ These are now outsourced and it is all part of the aviation industry.

‘’This is without forgetting handling companies. So how do you want to share N4billion among them? If you put that money into the well of the debt of Arik alone, it will swallow it. It is better the government does not intervene and tell us they cannot help us because they have to pay senators and House of Representatives

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.