By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday, announced the release of the sum of $265m to airlines operating in the country, being an intervention fund to enable them settle outstanding ticket sales even as the sector comes under threat.
A breakdown of the figure indicated that $230m was released as special foreign exchange intervention, while another $35m was released through Retail SMIS auction.
The CBN Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, who disclosed this in a statement on Friday said the Governor of the apex bank, Godwin Emefiele, and his team were concerned about development in the sector, what it portends for the sector and travellers as well as the country in the comity of nations.
Nwanisobi retiterated that the bank was not against any company repatriating its funds from the country, adding that what the bank stood for was an orderly exit for those that might be interested in doing so.
“With Friday’s release, it is expected that operators and travelers as well will heave huge sighs of relief, as some airlines had threatened to withdraw their services in the face of unremitted funds for outstanding sale of tickets,” CBN said.
There has been serious concerns and reactions over hundreds of millions of dollars earned by foreign airlines operating in the country which they could not repatriate due to foreign exchange scarcity problems.
Earlier in the month, Emirates Airlines had threatened to suspend flights to Nigeria over inability to repatriate its trapped ticket sales fund in Nigeria back to its home country in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The fund amounts to over $95 million it could not repatriate from the country due to scarcity of dollars.
