Nigeria’s economic challenge is a cause for worry to major players in all the sectors of the economy.
Seeing how this challenge has almost reduced the nation to a shadow of its former self, practical ways of reviving the economy have been put forward.
If only Nigeria, will be willing and able to resolve the foreign exchange (forex) problem the economy will rise again. These were the words of the Chairman of the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON).
There are many ways to tackle the hydra-headed challenges facing the Nigerian economy.
However, one that will yield a quick result with a more or less lasting solution is resolving the foreign exchange (forex) challenge.
The chairman of the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON), Abdulmunaf Yunusa, made this submission.
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Resolve Dollar Scarcity Challenge
According to the AON Chairman, this forex scarcity challenge affects almost all the sectors in the economy, from aviation to the oil sector, manufacturing and others.
Yunusa said: “I’m a businessman with diverse portfolios, from oil and gas; downstream oil sector, to aviation to manufacturing and now, to education.
“In most of the sectors, the main issue is about foreign exchange (forex). Access to forex.”
“The main challenge we are facing in the aviation sector is 95% based on dollar transactions.
“That is because, most of the things you are going to do, you do it in dollar, only five per cent in Nigerian currency.
“So, as we are not getting dollars at the ‘official’ price, operation becomes hard, since we transact all and most of our business using dollars.”
“With respect to aviation fuel being expensive, one cannot expect anything less”.
Furthermore, he highlighted that “the importers of aviation fuel import with dollars, and they too are complaining because they buy dollars from the black market, and we are aware.
“I’m the Chairman of the Airlines Operators of Nigeria (AON), so I know what is going on in the industry”.
Explaining further, he said, “we are currently having the challenge of bringing back our aircrafts that we took abroad for maintenance because we don’t have the dollar funding to bring them back.
Deregulation Requires A Level-playing Ground
“The key issue in the oil and gas business is also forex.
“Deregulation is a good idea, we support deregulation, sadly, the expected level-playing ground is not there, because of access to forex.
“Even if you want to form a consortium to import petrol in the sense of a deregulated market, there are no dollars with which to import.
“The dollar issue remains the monster we must destroy to forge ahead, because whatever you are going to bring into the country to run or support your business is through the dollar”.
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He, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government, the new governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Minister of Finance to tackle this problem so that Nigerians can breathe again.
