Senator Hadi Sirika, minister of Aviation, has disclosed that Nigeria’s national airliner, Nigeria Air, will take off by April 2022.
The disclosure came on Wednesday, shortly after it was deliberated on at the week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Giving details of how it would work, Sirika said the national carrier will be run by a company in which the Nigerian government will hold a 5% stake, Nigerian entrepreneurs holding 46%, while the remaining 49% will be reserved for yet to be assigned strategic equity partners, including foreign investors.
The minister who said the Council gave approvals for the new national carrier, said the national carrier, when operational, will create about 70,000 jobs for Nigerians.
Sirika recalled that over 400,000 Nigerians participated in choosing the name which was launched in 2018.
He said, “Today (Wednesday) in Council civil aviation presented two memoranda. The first one is approval for the award of contract for the provision of Automated Civil Aviation Regulatory Equipment, including software support and training, which will be located in Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
“In summary, this is a software that will allow all of the activities of civil aviation regulation to be done electronically on one platform, including payments, including follow-ups on personnel licensing, the medicals, the economic regulation of airlines, safety regulation of airlines and all other businesses within the envelope of civil aviation will be monitored by this single software.
“It is called ‘the truth machine’ in the quotation in Europe because all of the truth of regulation of civilization will appear on this platform, it’s extremely important software that the world has now come to terms with.
