The report of the National Bureau of Statistics that the average airfare paid by passengers on specified routes for a single journey has increased by 52 per cent in the past 12 months is one of the leading stories in Nigerian newspapers on Tuesday.
The Punch reports that the average airfare paid by passengers on specified routes for a single journey has increased by 52 per cent in the past 12 months, the National Bureau of Statistics data have shown.
In a new report titled, “Transport Fare Watch (April 2022),” the NBS said airfares recorded a 19 per cent increase when gauged on a month-on-month basis.
On state profile analysis, Taraba recorded the highest air transport charges (for specified routes single journey) in April 2022 with N65,000.00, followed by Kogi with N64,258.91, while Kano recorded the least with N50,000.00.
Analysis by zone also showed that the North-Central recorded the highest airfare in April, 2022 with N57,552.54, followed by the North-East with N56,800.16, while the South-East had the least with N53,402.58.
The significant hike in airfares, according to findings, is not unconnected to the recent challenges faced by local airlines, ranging from energy price hikes to lack of access to foreign exchange.
The newspaper says that the Nigeria Customs Service and a consortium, Trade Modernisation Project Limited, on Monday, signed a concession agreement worth $3.2bn to digitalise operations of the border security and revenue collection outfit. This is just as the Federal Government expects to generate over $176bn from the deal.
At the agreement signing ceremony held at the Abuja national headquarters of the NCS were representatives of technical and financial partners in the deal, including African Finance Corporation and Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of China-based Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.
The Controller-General, NCS, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.), in his remarks after the documents were signed, stated that Nigeria was setting a pace that other African countries were looking forward to follow.
Ali partly said, “The journey has been long and tortuous, but we thank God that today we have signed the dotted lines. Today, we are happy to say that in Nigeria, we are going to be fully electronic, digitised and modernised. The success of this project will put Nigeria on the map.
“This project is very important in the sense that it has so many benefits that are lined up. The first benefit, which is tangible, is the fact that we are going to garner for this country, $3.5bn.
“To the Nigeria Customs, this is going to change the entire business process. It is going to put the Customs on the best part in terms of doing the business. It would remove all arbitrariness and human mistakes. It is a process that would ease the cost of doing business. It is a process that would also assist those of us who were given the task to manage with a simpler process of managing and monitoring.
The Guardian reports that the influx of expatriate crew into the general aviation services and growing patronage by the political class has been estimated to cost Nigeria an average of N1.62 billion ($3.89 million) in capital flight monthly. The estimate, which covers only wages of $13,500 average per foreign pilot, stands to balloon with the addition of the cost of aircraft lease, insurance and fuel – all of which are sourced in foreign currency.
Compared to what it was 10 months ago, The Guardian learnt that the number of active private and commercial jets has doubled, with about 120 airoplanes crisscrossing the airspace. However, out of every five that land at airports nationwide, at least three (60 per cent) have a foreign crew in the cockpit.
Beside the heavy toll on scarce foreign exchange, stakeholders are also worried about the national security risk of exposing high profile politicians and potential presidents to foreigners.
As of June 2021, amid recovery from the devastating effects of the pandemic, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had disclosed that about 46 out of 95 private jets were active in the country. But towards the end of the year, more aircraft came alive. A commercial operator in Lagos hinted that the boom was in response to the upswing in political activities.
“High profile people, especially politicians, big banks, religious leaders and some musicians toward the end of December 2021 dust off their private jets as restrictions were removed in many parts of the world. So, we saw an increase there.
“In the last couple of months, politicians have dominated the airspace and for obvious reasons. Those that don’t have a private jet to their names started to lease on a short-term basis. And that is good business for us.
“Instead of two or three charter services, we started having five to seven a day and round the clock activities. So, we have seen between 35 to 60 per cent increase in patronage. We are still expecting more,” the source said.
The newspaper says that Small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria face more cyber threats with attacks increasing by 89 per cent last year.
Kaspersky, a Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider, disclosed this, noting that when a small business owner is faced with the responsibilities of production, financial reports and marketing at the same time, cybersecurity worry is an unnecessary challenge.
According to Kaspersky researchers, which assessed the dynamics of attacks on SMEs between January and April 2022 and the same period in 2021, they warned that these threats pose an increasing danger to entrepreneurs.
In 2022, the number of Trojan-Password Stealing Ware (PSW) detections in Nigeria more than doubled when compared to the same period in 2021 – 2654 detections recorded in 2022 compared to 1076 in 2021.
Trojan-PSW is a malware that steals passwords along with other account information, which then allows attackers to gain access to the corporate network and steal sensitive information.
The cyber security firm noted that another popular attack tool used on small businesses is Internet attacks, specifically, web pages. While the number of these attacks decreased in the first four months of 2022 in Nigeria (56,836 infections in 2022 compared to 99,146 infections in 2021), Internet attacks are still a concern and need to be protected against, the report said.
With the shift towards remote working, many companies have introduced the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), a technology that enables computers on the same corporate network to be linked together and accessed remotely, even when the employees are at home. The number of attacks on RDP has increased significantly in Nigeria, by 89 per cent.
The Sun reports that Mr. Uche Orji, managing director and chief executive officer of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), is battling a global tempest to stabilise and sail Nigeria’s investment ship into calmer waters.
He is the pioneer CEO of the NSIA in 2012 and was reappointed in 2017 for a second and final five-year term, having led the operationalization and growth strategy since 2012. On his watch, the agency has literally become Nigeria’s infrastructure renewal driver, serving as a vehicle for implementing key infrastructure projects, among other fruitful investments.
However, Orji reckons that 2022 will be a very challenging investment year for the NSIA and its likes due to a cocktail of factors, including the Russia Ukraine war, roaring global inflation and China’s continued battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected global supply chains because China is more or less the global manufacturing capital, among others.
Regardless of the aforementioned headwinds, he has assured Nigerians that the NSIA has developed a strategy to wade through the waters to remain successful.
The NSIA CEO has over three decades of global experience spanning banking, asset management and financial services to the leadership of the authority.
In addition to his role as MD/CEO, he serves on the boards of the Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company Limited (InfraCredit) as chairman, and non-executive director at the Development Bank of Nigeria, Family Homes Funds Limited, NG Clearing Limited and Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company.
GIK/APA