The Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, lamented that Nigeria may not enjoy the full benefits of the proposed Single African Air Transport Market, SAATM, for Africa due to the absence of a national carrier and aircraft maintenance facilities in the country.
Sirika stated this weekend while briefing newsmen in Abuja on the details of the just-concluded 30th African Union Heads of Government meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
He noted that discussions on single market began since 1999 with Nigeria on the forefront of the negotiations, but stated that the country would not have full benefit of the project since national career was still an illusion.
The minister said: “Some African Ministers in 1999 thought and considered the necessity of us to have a liberalised Single Aviation Market within the continent of Africa. Nigeria is one of the 11 countries that sat there and kick started it at that time.
”There was also a ministerial committee that was created and they took it to the next level where we have a Single African Air Transport Market, SAATM,” he announced.
Sirika regretted that 80 percent of the players in the Aviation industry were non-African, but expressed optimism that with the new initiative, there would be more collaboration among African nations which will position them for a dominating role.
“Some of the issues is that 80 percent of those doing business in aviation market in Africa are non African in terms of the airline and other entrepreneurs within the market of Aviation in Africa, and we all thought that this must change, it must be the other way round.
“The 80 percent of those doing business in Aviation from airlines to other entrepreneurs should actually be truly African.
“Heads of States for Africa adopted the single African air transport market as one of the flagship projects and certainly among the first to be launched” Sirika stated.
On some of the benefits of the SAATM and how Nigeria will benefit from the programme, he continued,
“Air transportation connects businesses, people, market, culture, tradition, knowledge and so on. It drives the economies of countries and of course improve on tourism and make it more accessible and by extension create more wealth and more activity. And in Nigeria we thought that this is an opportunity we shall not miss at all.
‘We are one quarter the size of Africa itself because one out of every four African is a Nigerian. 180 million people us half the size of Africa itself.
“We, in the Ministry of Transportation, believe that the West African and Central African market, if you consider them to be the belt of Africa, then certainly, Nigeria is a buckle of that belt. It holds it together, it makes it work, it makes it thick and we are highly mobile people, who ever get an opportunity gets a ticket to travel even for nothing.
“All theses travels, foreigners are taking advantage and leverage of that, they make money out of us and we have no corresponding effects to counter that. So we are actually exporting our wealth to some other people.
“We believe that if we create a Single African Market, we will allow the movement of people freely in and out of our sister countries and that will drive and develop transportation, connect us better. It will be very difficult for us to connect through rail or road transportation.
“Every single airport can create business around it and that will drive the economy and the process.
“Nigeria will benefit more because the market is here, the population is here. I agree also that we are yet to grow a very robust and viable national airline but we will take advantage of all of these, but it is on its way happening. We don’t have to wait to create it before we key into this market.
“The fact that the National carrier is not well in place does not mean that we are not going to take advantage of this.
“With the single African Air Transport market, there will be inter lining, there will be cooperation between businesses. Perhaps there is going to be someone who will ensure that the catering system is established in Nigeria to serve all airlines that are passing through Nigeria. It is a huge thing, the multiplier effect is a lot,” Sirika stated.
