Aviation Sector attracted $4B in 2016, Needs $50B to Grow

For the aviation industry to grow in Nigeria to be in tandem with what is obtained in other parts of the world and for the country to actualise its desire to become a hub in West and Central Africa, the industry needs injection of $50 billion in the next 30 years.

 This was the projection given by industry expert and CEO of RTC Advisory, Opeyemi Agbaje in his presentation at the Colloquium 2017, Vision 2050 for Aviation Industry held in recently.

 Agbaje said the Nigerian aviation industry attracted $4 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2016, noting that in 2010, the sector attracted $6 billion, $7.1billion in 2012; $5.6 billion in 2013; $4.6 billion 2014 and $8 billion in 2015.

 Delivering a paper titled ‘Vision 2050: How to Fast Track Nigeria’s Aviation’ Agbaje urged government to use favourable policies to encourage private investment in the industry and stressed that the industry needs about $50 billion to grow into a competitive sector and utilise the huge market provided by the country’s growing population, which is about 182 billion currently.

 But for this goal to be realised the country needs stable macroeconomic environment and should be forward looking in its activities.

 “It requires a stable macroeconomic environment; forward-looking and proactive policy; a clear and compelling vision for the industry shared by all stakeholders including government and the private sector; and regulation that seeks to foster industry transformation,” he said.

 Agbaje said the federal government could not solely provide all the infrastructural needs in the country’s aviation industry, insisting that the answer to Nigeria’s aviation industry was DFI.

 The consultant said Nigerian transport industry would require at least $800 billion in the next 37 years to address the infrastructural gaps in the system while the Nigerian aviation industry would require $50bn within the period.

 Agbaje said the Nigerian economy in 1999 was $57 billion while it grew to $110 billion by 2013, but noted that by 2016 the growth declined.

 According to him, all forms of transportation contributed 2.88 per cent to the Nigerian economy in 1999, but nosedived to just 1.4 per cent of the nation’s economy, stressing that within the period, the Nigerian economy had grown ten folds while the transportation industry had continued to decline.

 Agbaje noted further that there have been shifts in the structure of the Nigerian economy over the years, but insisted that for the country to be rated among the best, it should improve on the infrastructural deficits in the system.

 However, Agbaje observed that Nigeria had become a more diversified economy especially in the domestic production, but the federal government was yet to diversify from dependence on crude oil.

 “The entire transport system is not keeping pace with the Nigerian economy. From 1999 to 2016 the total gross domestic product (GDP) was $1.6 billion and was $6.1billion by 2016. Our government still relies on crude oil, but the private investors have diversified from the oil economy. The entire contribution of transport sector to the GDP in Nigeria is 1.4 per cent, but this has been on the decline in recent time.

 “Out of this figure, the contribution of aviation to the entire transport sector is merely 5.7 per cent while road transport gulped 86.78 per cent, water transport is 1.4 per cent and rail is 0.03 per cent. The evidence of government’s incapacity is so glaring, yet, the government thinks it can solve every problem in the country,” he said.

THISDAY