By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The National Conference Committee on Aviation has recommended that the Oronsaye Committee report to merge three parastatals of the Aviation Ministry, which is being implemented be put on hold.
The committee also called on the federal government to introduce aircraft leasing company with a minimum investment of $10 billion over the next five years, to grow the domestic airlines.
These recommendations were contained in the amended report of the Conference Committee on Aviation headed by Senator Musa Adede, which also resolved that besides the unions, Airline Operators, international partners and other stakeholders had already raised a lot of concerns on this issue.
The affected agencies are the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Nigeria Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigeria Metrological Agency (NIMET).
“It is instructive to state that this merger has put together service providers and a regulatory body, this appears impracticable as no successful agency has been able to propose policies, implement as well as monitor at the same time. Furthermore, part of the reason the Category Status (CAT1) and the ICAO (International civil Aviation Organization) certification were granted to Nigeria is that our sector is backed by clear legislation.”
“These same Agencies were only demerged in 1999 and new legislations have been put in place…The committee therefore recommends that the merger exercise be stopped forthwith and return to the status quo.”
In reading the amendments, the Secretary of the Conference Valerie Azinge who presided over plenary said the committee recommended that government should review all tax and charges relating to airline operations, such as cancelling import tax and duties on aircrafts and spare parts, “significant reduction of stamp duty on aircraft purchase and lease agreements and waiver of aircraft lease withholding tax and VAT (Value Added Tax).
“Government should reduce insurance premiums paid by domestic airlines by empowering Nigerian Insurance Companies to form a local aviation pool that is able to negotiate better rates in international insurance market for Nigerian airlines.”
It was equally recommended that the dredging of the all Channels and Ports including waterways should be done in-house by the Nigerian Ports Authority and should be funded from the 7% Port development Surcharge, which currently stood at over N30 Billion Naira. Payments for all dredging works must be paid in Naira instead of US dollars, as is the case now.