The Nigerian Senate has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to release 717, 478, 606 million dollars airlines funds trapped in the country.
The upper legislative arm of government also called on the CBN to allocate 25 million dollars to airlines operating in Nigeria at its forth-nightly dollar auction.
These resolutions were reached sequel to the consideration of a motion titled: “Current Issues on airlines blocked funds in Nigeria” sponsored by Sen. Biodun Olujimi (PDP-Ekiti) on Wednesday at plenary. He chairs the Senate Committee on Aviation.
The upper chamber also called on the Federal Government to urgently reverse the current trend of increasing airlines blocked funds in Nigeria.
It called on President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, to pay up the blocked funds to the affected airlines.
The upper chamber further appealed to the airlines operating in the country not to withdraw their services while efforts are on-going to resolve the issue.
The consequences of these blocked funds are: Cheap tickets are not available in Nigeria because taxes and inflation will have eroded the profit when the funds are kept for a very long time.
This makes tickets very expensive and limited because neighbouring countries get the cheap tickets because of prompt payments due to prompt repatriation of funds.
Moving the motion, Senator Ibn Na’Allah, said that since January 2021, Nigeria has remained the most challenged country in the world for airlines to repatriate funds to support their operation.
In February, this year, Nigeria alone accounted for 44 per cent of total airlines blocked funds in the world.
The total airlines funds blocked in Nigeria as at March amounted to 717,478,606, dollars comprising matured bids that the CBN was yet to deliver, bids yet to mature and cash balances in airlines’ accounts for repatriation.
The matured bids not delivered by CBN amounted to 186.5 million dollars accounting for 26 per cent of total blocked funds while three stakeholders (IATA, Qatar Airways, and Ethiopian Airlines) accounted for 57 per cent of total blocked funds.
A review of airlines’ blocked funds in Nigeria in the last six months shows an average month-on-month increase of 49.3million dollars.
