FG Moves To Top Continental Cargo Movement Chart

The Federal Government, through the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has taken a further step at repositioning and rejiging air cargo business and operations just as it has disclosed that it will do everything possible to ensure Nigeria moves to the top of the chart in cargo movements in African airports.

Nigeria currently ranks 5th in Africa’s air cargo movements while it also imports more than she exports, creating an imbalance that is adversely affecting the economy.

Speaking at the Managing Director’s office conference room, FAAN, Lagos during the inauguration of three sub-committees of the AviaCargo committee, Mr. Ikechi Uko, Coordinator of the committee, who is also the organiser of Aviation and Cargo conference, an annual program tagged CHINET, 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, in a hurry for the simple fact that we have the largest economy in Africa, 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”, he said.

Uko, who noted further that there is need for an engagement with the logistics companies, revealed that the issue of funding was also identified.

“We have three years to turn things around but we can do this in 28 months if we are committed . We plan to work with five clusters, what can we 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 added.

Earlier, Mr. Hyacinth Nkwu, General manager, Business Development, (FAAN), 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 kickstart the process.

The three sub-committees inaugurated are Airport, Cargo and Export sub-committees.

According to Uko, they have 45 days to deliver results.

The Airport team has the following among others as terms of reference: How will we make Nigeria the No. 1 Air Cargo airport in Africa?. What are the challenges getting to the No. 1 (NEEDS assessment) gaps between current and achieving desired outcome.