By Chinelo Obogo, Lagos
The Ogun cargo airport will be one of the exhibitors at Chinet Aviacargo Expo, with Sterling Bank, a supporter of travel business in Nigeria, partnering with the conference organisers in an effort to help grow the sector.
Nigeria imports tonnes of cargo by air daily but exports very little through the same means as freighters arrive Nigerian airports fully laden on a daily basis but leave empty. To address this problem, the Chinet Aviacargo Conference is bringing together top players in aviation, logistics, export and support businesses to a two-day conference and exhibition in Lagos.
The Commissioner of Finance and the Chief Economic Adviser Ogun State, Dapo Okubadejo, who confirmed that the airport will showcase at the conference, will engage aviation experts on the advanced plan and implementation of the airport project.
The Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Civil Aviation Agency (NCAA), Nigerian Export Promotions Council (NEPC) will be Joined by the Standard Organisations of Nigeria (SON), Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) and the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) in the conference which will take place on August 25 and 26 at the Mariot Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
A leading exporter, Captain John Okakpu, who is the head of the 30-man agro committee set up by the Federal Ministry of Trade, will be speaking and the export group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) will be well represented.
There would be an insurance session as there has been growing complaints among aviation stakeholders that insurance companies in Nigeria lack the capacity to handle aviation business. Some of the complaints are the high premiums paid by Nigerian airlines to foreign insurance companies which keeps rising every year because of presumed country risk issues. Airlines claim that the high cost of insurance is passed onto the passengers and the economy is also not benefiting from the prevailing system. The insurance session will be led by Chairman Boff & Company Insurance Brokers Ltd, Babajide Olatunde-Agbeja and will be supported by leading Insurance companies and their chief executives.
The conference will have the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, Smart Adeyemi and his House of Representatives counterpart, Nnolim Nnaji as special guests of honour.
This is as the Nigeria Export Promotion Council and the Nigerian Export Processing Zone Authority will be making presentations on how exporters can be assisted to do more through aviation and would showcase the opportunities available to investors at the airports. The two leading cargo and logistics companies, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) and Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) will be major players at the event along with many airlines, logistics and global financial service companies.
The conference will be broken into three parts over two days; Aviation, Cargo and Exports. The aviation aspect will have a presentation and panel discussion on ‘Airlines, Airports and Aviation’. Experts including Airline CEOs, past airport CEOs and aviators will discuss the reasons why domestic airlines and airport systems have not delivered the best possible outcomes for aviation in Nigeria.
The second section will be a presentation and panel discussions on the cargo and logistics value chain, the challenges of scale and the opportunities available. The third part will be on export and how to remove the impediments and improve access and market penetration globally. There will also be a support session on insurance and financing of aviation, cargo and export in Nigeria.
Publisher of Atqnews, Ikechi Uko, who is the organiser of the event, said: ‘At the end of the conference, we will be leaving with enough knowledge about the current aviation situation in Nigeria and its role in growing the economy by driving bigger cargo export from Nigeria.’