Responding to questions
raised about the Nigerian carrier which was launched on Wednesday, July 18,
Hadi Sirika, minister of state for aviation, says the FG is not paying $300
million for a 5% stake in Nigeria Air.
“The government is not
funding the entire project. It’s just providing startup capital in the form of
an upfront grant/viability gap funding.
Once the strategic equity
investor is in place, they will be expected to build on the initial investment
made,” he said.
The minister of state for
aviation also told newsmen that the FG has commenced moves that would compel
any public servant travelling on a ticket bought with public funds to travel on
a Nigerian carrier, in order to make indigenous airlines viable.
He further declared that it
was false to state that Nigeria Air lacked a domain name, adding that those who
wanted to steal the airline’s domain name would not get a kobo from the FG, as
www.flynigeriaair.ng is already secured. According to him, the government is
making moves to have the National Assembly pass a ‘Fly Nigeria Act’ in order to
achieve this target.
He said, “On conclusion of
the PPP procurement process, when full equity structure pre-financial close is
finalised, the incorporation will be updated and the certificate of
incorporation made public. Nigeria Air Limited is indeed a legal entity.
“Further to the
incorporation of the company with nominal directors, the domain name,
www.flynigeriaair.ng, has been reserved and will be made active
“The current campaign of
falsehood, unfortunately reminds me of what happened when we decided for safety
reasons to close the Abuja airport and make repairs that had been abandoned for
years.
“The same group of
Nigerians went to the social media spreading falsehood. We stayed on course and
delivered the runway, which has served now faultlessly. As we delivered on the
Abuja runway repairs, so shall we on the national carrier and we will not bow to
falsehood.”
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