The Senate urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to release the $717,478.606 held captive by airlines.<\/p>\n
The red chamber also requested that the CBN allocate $25 million to Nigerian airlines during its dollar auction.<\/p>\n
These resolutions followed the consideration and adoption of a motion sponsored by Senator Biodun Olujimi (PDP-Ekiti South) titled “Current Issues on Blocked Funds for Airlines in Nigeria.”<\/p>\n
Olujimi is the chair of the Senate Aviation Committee.<\/p>\n
Senator Bala Allah (APC-Kebbi), Vice Chairman of the Committee, presented the motion on behalf of Senator Olujimi.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the upper chamber urged the federal government to immediately reverse the rising trend of blocked airline funds in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
In addition, it demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari instruct CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele to release the blocked funds to the affected airlines.<\/p>\n
In addition, the upper chamber urged airlines operating in the country not to terminate their services while efforts to resolve the issue continued.<\/p>\n
Since January 2021, Nigeria has been the most difficult country in the world for airlines to repatriate funds to support their operations, according to Na’Allah, who proposed the motion.<\/p>\n
He stated, “In February, Nigeria accounted for 44% of all airline funds that were blocked globally.<\/p>\n
“As of March, the total quantity of airlines’ blocked funds in Nigeria was $717,478,606. This figure includes matured bids that the CBN has yet to deliver, bids that have yet to mature, and cash balances in airlines’ accounts for repatriation.<\/p>\n
“The matured proposals not delivered by CBN totaled $186.5 million, representing 26% of total blocked funds, whereas three stakeholders (IATA, Qatar Airways, and Ethiopian Airlines) accounted for 57% of total blocked funds;<\/p>\n
A review of blocked airline funds in Nigeria over the past six months reveals an average monthly increase of $49.3 million.<\/p>\n
“As a result of these obstructed funds, it is impossible to purchase inexpensive airline tickets in Nigeria, as taxes and inflation would have eroded the profit had the funds been held for a very long time.<\/p>\n
“As a result, tickets are prohibitively expensive and in short supply, as prompt payments and repatriation of funds allow neighbouring nations to obtain discounted tickets.”<\/p>\n
In their contributions, senators supported the motion and approved the prayers when presented to a voice vote by Senate President Ahmad Lawan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to release the $717,478.606 held captive by airlines. The red chamber also requested that the CBN allocate $25 million to Nigerian airlines during its dollar auction. These resolutions followed the consideration and adoption of a motion sponsored by Senator Biodun Olujimi (PDP-Ekiti South) titled “Current Issues […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"The Senate urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to release the $717,478.606 held captive by airlines.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shakamomodu.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}