In a recent development, the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika has announced that the Federal Government of Nigeria has approved April 2022 as the new official date for the commencement of the operations of Nigeria Air.
The minister disclosed this while briefing the State House correspondents on the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting which was presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Sirika noted that majority shares of about 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.
The minister also revealed that the council has approved the sum of N1.49 billion for the provision of Automated Civil Aviation Regulatory Equipment to be located at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
“Today in Council, Ministry of Aviation presented two memoranda. The first one is approval for the award of contract for the provision of Automated Civil Aviation Regulatory Equipment, including the software support and training, which will be located at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
“In summary, this is the software that will allow all of the activities of civil aviation regulations to be done electronically on one platform, including payments, follow-ups on personnel licenses, medicals, economic regulation of airlines, safety regulations of airlines and all other businesses within the envelop of civil aviation, will be monitored by this single software. So, that has been approved.
The minister stated that the Nigeria Air, when operational, would generate over 70,000 jobs, adding that this figure would be higher than the total number of civil servants the country currently has.
