As Nigeria joins the whole world to usher in the new year, all stakeholders within and out of the country’s aviation sector have been urged to eliminate the perception that Nigeria’s Lagos and Abuja airports are the most expensive globally.
The notion that the two Nigerian airports declared as the most expensive by the Regional Vice President of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for Africa and Middle East, Kamil Al-Awadhi at different fora has continued to elicit reactions in Nigeria.
Key players who gathered to deliberate on the topic : ‘Nigerian Aviation Sector Charges, Duties And Tariffs: Truly Exorbitant?’, organised by Aviation Round Table Initiative (ASRTI) unanimously described the perception that the charges at the two airports are the most expensive as a huge scare to foreign investment and not an attractant to the development of the airport and aviation strategy.
The key players who used the ASRTI end of year quarterly breakfast meeting to look into the different charges existing in the sector, called for the review of the high landing and parking fees for cargo aircraft in Nigeria so that interested investors will not keep preferring neigbouring countries for their cargo operations.
According to the gathering, “It is important for Nigeria as a nation to cease taxing seeds but, instead, foster an environment that encourages businesses to thrive, bearing fruits that can be taxed, as the country cannot aspire to be competitive while at the same time, burdening businesses with complex processes.”
Describing the existence of multiple charges and levies on cargo export as a huge disincentive to Nigeria’s cargo potentials, the stakeholders said this should be addressed urgently in the interest of the overall economy.
“It is imperative to remove the obstacles to the movement of cargo by air within and outside Nigeria by exposing and reviewing all existing known and unknown charges, tariffs and fees at the nation’s cargo sheds. In this regard, ART will partner with the Aviacargo Roadmap Committee to address this issue.”
At the meeting, states across the country were asked to be encouraged to develop their airports not only to increase access to the states, but create convenience for travellers and the resultant economic benefits to the nation.
It was generally resolved that there is a need to review the multiple charges collected from state-owned airports that strip them of the capacity to expand and develop their airports, resulting often times in the states returning airports to the management of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and worsening an already problematic issue.
The key players made up of different professionals within and out of the aviation sector mentioned the issues of the FAAN, NAMA and NiMET charges that have already been provided for and duplicated in violation of ICAO Document 9082, the charge for flight plans after receiving part of NCAA’s 5% that the same airports helped to generate.
According to a communique issued at the end of the event, the participants declared: “There is the need for an effective mechanism for “regulating” the charges imposed by service regulators in Nigeria so this can serve as a tool for dealing with underlining ‘agency cost’ in Ministries, Departments and Government Agencies (MDA’s). Oversight of regulators and the proper coordination of charges by MDAs will prevent the prevalent abuse of regulatory power for revenue purposes. In this regard, aviation agencies in Nigeria should not be compelled with revenue targets requiring that they impose charges and fees on service providers to meet these targets and thereby impede the sector growth and development.
“There should be only one single revenue agency as is commonplace in modern economies, this is to get the aviation agencies to focus on their core mandates of providing safe and secure aviation services rather than the focus on revenue generation through multiple charges, tariffs and fees and in the process discouraging investments and sector growth.”
The gathering frowned at the situation where only nine of the twenty-five charges currently being paid on cargo are recognized by the government, saying: “The implication is that money is going into private pockets impacting the movement of goods and services as cargo, it is important therefore for the federal government to investigate this matter and take action to forestall such activities and make Nigerian exports competitive.
“Furthermore as an initial and important step, there should be an immediate Executive order to put a stop to all forms of charges that make Nigerian exports less competitive, hinder investments and prevent the country and economy from attaining its full potentials in the air cargo sector. The executive order is then expected to be replaced by new laws to be proposed.”
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