Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika has said that nothing less than $350 million is required for the takeoff of the proposed national carrier, Nigeria Air.
Sirika, who made this known yesterday in Abuja, said the Federal Government would contribute about $17.5million representing about a five percent equity stake.
He spoke during the presentation of the scorecard of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on aviation.
The minister said: “We said the government has no business in business and we saw it in Nigeria Airways. It went down simply because of governance, the issue of free tickets, and the attitude of nobody owns it because everybody owns it. We need some shoulders for the government to lean on. So, in this new carrier, the Nigerian government will get five percent.
“The five percent is for all the 215 million people because the government has no business in business and cannot run it. That is the truth. About 46 percent of the equity in the airline will be for Nigerian Institutional investors who are interested in it. When you add it together, you have 51 percent for Nigerians. This is on purpose and it is deliberate so that we can have controlling shares.
”Even the five percent of the government can be sold later once we are on our ground. The equity partner and investors will now invest 49 percent. So, Ethiopian Airlines (ET) and other consortiums will come and invest.
”The total, for now, is $350million to start the airline. So, Ethiopian Airlines is expected to bring 49 percent of $350million, and the rest five percent, which is about $17.5million is for the Nigerian government and the remaining 46 percent will be for the Nigerian institutional investors.”
