Louis Ibah
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), yesterday said international airlines doing business in Africa were denied access to an estimated $1billion being funds generated from various business transacted in the continent.
IATA Special Envoy in Africa, Mr. Raphael Kuuchiat, in a statement made available to Daily Sun yesterdaylamented the new fiscal policies in some African countries that prevented airlines from uninterrupted withdrawing of funds, saying the trend constituted a severe threat to the growth of aviation industry in the continent.
Kuuchiat who announced that the African aviation sector had attracted over $55.8bilion from both foreign and international investors in recent years with about 6.2 million new jobs created, appealed to African states to relax policies that frustrate airlines business given the importance of air connectivity to the continents economic development.
“ African countries blocking over $1.0 billion of airline funds are a big concern to us because blocking airlines funds puts connectivity at risk and that invites even broader economic problems,” said Kuuchiat.
“IATA has had success in Nigeria and Egypt where government actions completely cleared the backlog of funds and we urge other governments to do the same because it is in everybody’s interest to ensure that airlines are paid on-time, at fair exchange rates and in full,” he added.
The IATA envoy lamented the poor contribution of aviation to Africa saying, “Africa is only scratching the surface of what aviation can contribute to building the continent’s future.”
He linked this poor performance to bad fiscal policies, bottlenecks from regulatory agencies, obsolete infrastructure, and weak local airlines. “There are many reasons for the poor performance of African airlines. Africa is an expensive place for airlines to do business,” He said.