March 23, 2023

Nigeria aims to get all the money from foreign airlines’ ticket sales out of the country and it is already paying the airlines, albeit only in trickles, Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said on Thursday.

A number of foreign airlines that sold tickets in the local naira currency in Nigeria have been having trouble getting their funds out of the country due to dollar shortages.

A spokesperson for the global airlines industry association IATA said last week that Nigeria was withholding $743 million in revenue earned by international carriers operating in the country, the highest amount owed by any nation.

Sirika did not provide a timeline for releasing the trapped funds. He said Qatar Airlines had $201 million blocked while another $216 million was owed to IATA airlines, the minister told reporters in Abuja.

REUTERS