Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo has disclosed of plans by the federal government to establish a national leasing company to ease the acquisition of aircraft by the country’s domestic carriers.

Mr Keyamo who announced this after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), in Abuja, last week, disclosed that the body would be known as the Nigeria Aircraft Leasing Company (NALC), adding further that it will be managed by the private sector.

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“This will be an SPV [special purpose vehicle] that will be wholly run by the private sector. The private sector will invest in it; in fact, we have investors already. They’ve just been waiting for this approval.

“The federal government’s role is just to guarantee the lessors and franchisors the repossession of the aircraft. The government would have equity in the new company,” he said.

Notably, Nigeria’s domestic operators have struggled to source aircraft from overseas lessors; only in 2022 did the country pass legislation enforcing the Cape Town Convention, which enables aircraft lessors to reclaim their assets in the event of an airline failing.

Keyamo described the new leasing company as “a game changer for our aviation industry. It eliminates the long-standing challenges Nigerian airlines face in accessing aircraft on competitive terms, and positions the country as a hub for aviation financing in Africa.”

NALC will enable airlines to source aircraft through a centralized system rather than negotiating individually with international lessors, he said, without giving details.

“This SPV will have some of the biggest financial bodies in Africa who are ready to invest in it because we have the market, we have the traffic, we have the population, we have the routes. So, this is the franchise we are selling to the world,” Keyamo explained.

Noting that the investors know the [new] aircraft will boost the market, the Minister added that, ‘ninety-five percent of our traffic in Nigeria is being carried by foreign airlines. We have to dip into this market, to claw some back, and the only way to do that is to let them have access to equipment. That is what NALC is about to achieve.’