2000 aviation jobs on the line in Nigeria
Aviation workers have called on the Federal Government to prevail on foreign airlines to help avert emerging threat confronting over two thousand workers in Nigeria, which they said requires intervention to forestall imminent loss of jobs.
Travel experts had stated that the alarming and dangerous situation needs an urgent attention, as the travel industry is fast losing revenue while travel agencies are closing shops.
To them, job losses in the travel sector would further increase the number of unemployment figure in the country with the added dangers that comes with unemployment. They called on the Federal Government to urgently look into this situation with a view to rectifying it.
The workers under the aegis of National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) had written a letter to the Minister of Transportation signed by NUATE General Secretary, Olayinka Olu Abioye stated that information reaching them indicated that foreign airlines operating into Nigeria are planning massive reduction in the number of its employees in order to cut costs and shrink its operations.
In a letter titled, “Save our souls and the jobs of over thousand aviation workers,” Abioye disclosed that the reason been adduced for this danger is that their earnings in the past year is under lock with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as they are unable to transfer these earnings to their respective home countries to meet operational costs in accordance with international rules.
The NUATE scribe reiterated that following concerns raised recently by leaders of these workers and other stakeholders and in appreciation of the good intent of the government’s fiscal policy, “we humbly make this clarion call for your intervention to grant foreign airlines concession to repartriate their proceeds to their home countries which may not be in the interest of the country and her people, if not quickly remedied.”
It would be recalled that foreign airlines in Nigeria have threatened to cut flights into the country due to the apex bank’s inability to remit N597bn, representing $3bn of ticket sales proceeds.
The situation has made many home offices of some of the foreign carriers to start mulling the idea of reducing flight frequencies into Nigeria.
A country manager of a top foreign carrier, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said, “We can’t continue like this.
“Some carriers are mulling plans to reduce flights into Nigeria. In the past eight months, we can’t repatriate our ticket sales proceeds to our head offices; all the foreign airlines have close to $3bn in unremitted ticket sales proceeds pending in the country now.
“We have made several applications, but no forex is given to us. Sometimes, some airlines get only $1m approved from a request of say $10m made in some months,” the official added.
Findings show each of the 25 foreign carriers flying into the country had outstanding ticket sales proceeds ranging from $50m to $150m over the past seven to eight months.
