British Airways issues notice to travel agents: “I wish to inform you of British Airways intention to control their Global Distribution System inventory by removing all the lower classes from the GDS, leaving only the below classes to be sold and issued and we all know the cost implications to this: Economy Y, Premium Economy W; Business Class J; First Class F. This became necessary due to fluctuating and unstable exchange rate in Nigeria.”
Simply, BA and other foreign airlines plan to reduce the “total number of tickets they sell on Nigerian routes amid worsening dollar scarcity that has made it difficult for them to repatriate billions of naira in ticket sale proceeds to their head offices abroad”.
If the world cuts off Nigeria, that would be fearful because what that means is that we may not even have the airlines to fly to go and borrow more money. There is also rumour that some airlines now want to be paid in US dollars or pounds sterling; the Central Bank of Nigeria promised to investigate this planned “dollarization”. According to IATA, an industry association in the airline sector, Nigeria holds $143.8m which foreign airlines are struggling to repatriate due to dollar scarcity.
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“It is worrisome that airlines in Nigeria can’t repatriate about $144m. Imagine if this situation is applicable to other countries, the industry will be in jeopardy. The government should know that without this repatriation, the airlines won’t be able to fund maintenance, operations, aircraft purchases, salaries and other commitments. The government has to seriously look into this and find a solution as this is embarrassing for a country like Nigeria.”
People, do not be surprised if these airlines go on “strike” in two years and magically we will be disconnected from the world. Do not wish for that as everything will collapse including the ability to visit IMF, World Bank, etc for more loans.
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Nigeria’s case has past be careful, we sell crude oil but the money doesn’t return to our national purse, subsidy and cost of production take everything, we even incur deficit…
There’s no quick fix, but we need to also demonstrate that we are capable of climbing out of this hole we dug and jumped in, we cannot continue to dig deeper.
We do not have a local airline capable of flying Nigerians across the globe, that might have helped to reduce pressure on naira. Dangote bailed us on cement, and hopefully will bail us in petrol soon, but we remain supremely deficient and incapacitated in so many other areas, making the small progress made not being visible.
From flour to corn, from starch to gas, we are nowhere near self sufficiency, and these are things we import in large volumes, both for industrial and personal uses. Not to talk of spending on foreign medical care and education.
There’s so much work to do in this land, and pointing fingers or blaming politicians won’t help anyone; if you are capable of contributing in any way, just get to work and stop complaining.
Being a Nigerian takes a lot of bravery, you either give it your all or step aside.