By Chinelo Obogo
The Federal Government has said it will ensure Nigeria moves to the top of the chart in cargo movements from its current ranking of 5th in Africa’s air cargo sector.
Speaking during the inauguration of three sub-committees of the AviaCargo committee, held at the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) office in Lagos, Coordinator of the committee and organiser of Aviation and Cargo conference, Mr. Ikechi Uko, said Nigeria can move up the ladder of air cargo movements in Africa if all hands were on deck.
“We need to be number one in Africa for the simple fact that we have the largest economy and we have busy airports. We want to be the hub for cargo movements in West Africa. Kenya is ranked number one in Africa, yet it has a smaller economy, what are we not doing right in Nigeria where we have busier airports?
“We found out some gaps and that gave rise to setting up these committees. We found out that the quantity of domestic cargo through the airports is too small, we cannot develop a regional cargo hub without having a strong domestic operations. Why are the airlines not taking this seriously?
“We have three years to turn things around but we can do this in 18 months if we are committed. We plan to work with five clusters and see what we can do to scale up production, export and distribution in all the clusters. We will work using the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis for each of the clusters,” he said.
Earlier, General Manager, Business Development, (FAAN), Mr. Hycineth Ngwu, explained that the Managing Director of FAAN, Captain Rabiu Yadudu, decided to champion the development of air cargo by first nominating Ikechi Uko as coordinator of AviaCargo committee to kick start the process and according to Uko, they have 45 days to deliver results.