Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr. Festus Keyamo, has said that Nigeria has exited the watchlist of the Aviation Working Group, having increased from its initial 70.5 per cent rating to 75.9 per cent.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Joint User Hydrant Installation 2 in Lagos on Thursday, said that in September after the Cape Town Convention on the dry-leasing of aircraft was put into full compliance, Nigeria’s aviation rating soared from 49.5 per cent to the initial 70.5 per cent.
Keyamo explained that the request to sign the required documents to boost the confidence of aviation financiers and lessors in the country had been left unattended for 10 years.
He added that with the Juhi 2 aviation fuel depot of 15,000,000 litres carriage capacity, the industry has also complied with another International Civil Aviation Organisation regulation.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority recently signed an updated Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorisation document advisory, an administrative rule that empowers the NCAA to deregister and export aircraft that are registered in Nigeria.
“It is a major eye-opener, it is also a market-opener for the aviation sector, especially the Nigerian aviation sector around the world. They can then go globally and assess the world of aircraft financing and aircraft leasing across the world. We were actually on a blacklist before.
“Before now, we were at 49.5, which was a non-compliant figure. We were on that belt before. We moved up to 70.5, which was a compliant belt, but still on the watchlist.
“But now, we are 75.5 per cent, we are completely off the watchlist. And the Aviation Working Group, co-chaired by Boeing and Airbus, said this is a high score.
“They termed it a high score for the country, and it matches the score that you see that most of the big nations in the world who assess big aircraft financing currently have,” the report by Punch newspaper on Friday quoted the Nigerian minister as saying
GIK/APA