Nigeria Air commences operation in December -Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured that the establishment of a National Carrier for Nigeria is at 91 per cent completion, and is expected to commence flight operations before the end of this year.

The president gave the assurance at the 3rd Ministerial Performance Review Retreat on Monday in Abuja.

According to him, the feat is being boosted with the certification of Lagos and Abuja International Airports by the International Civil Aviation Organization, while Kano and Port Harcourt Airports are undergoing similar certification processes.

In November 2021, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved April 2022 as the official date for the commencement of the operations of the much-awaited Nigeria Air.

The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this when he briefed State House correspondents on the outcome of the FEC meeting, saying the majority shares of 49 per cent of the Nigeria Air project will be owned by strategic equity partners, 46 per cent by Nigerians while the Federal Government will own five per cent of the shares.

However, that deadline was not met but Buhari is assuring Nigerians that the deadline would be met this time around.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria Air has gulped N14.6billion, under five per cent government’s equity share.

On the economy, the President restated that the country had witnessed seven consecutive quarters of growth after negative growth rates were recorded in the 2nd and 3rd Quarters of 2020.

”The GDP grew by 3.54% (year-on-year) in real terms in the 2nd Quarter of 2022. This growth rate represents a sustained positive economic performance, especially for the Non-Oil GDP which fell by 4.77 per cent in Q2 2022 against Oil GDP which grew by -11.77 per cent.

”Most sectors of the economy recorded positive growth which reflects the effective implementation of the economic sustainability measures introduced by this Administration,” he said.

On the Communications and Digital Economy Sector, the president noted that giant strides had been made ”through broadband coverage which currently stands at 44.32 per cent reinforced by 77.52 per cent 4G coverage with the establishment of 36,751 4G base stations nationwide.”

Similarly, the president declared that the power sector had remained a critical priority for the administration.

He added that the implementation of a ‘Willing Buyer-Willing Seller’ policy introduced by the Federal Government has opened up opportunities for increased delivery of electricity to underserved homes and industries.

”We are also executing a number of critical projects through the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme, which will result in achieving the national goal of improved power supply by 2025.

”It is important to state that the partnership between the Federal Government of Nigeria and German Siemens AG through the Presidential Power Initiative to increase electricity generation to 25,000 Megawatts (MW) in six years is on course,” he said.

He announced that the first batch of the transformers had arrived in Nigeria already.