‘NCAA, FAAN Can Generate Over N250bn, N50bn Revenues For Federal Govt Yearly’

Amid dwindling revenue in the country, an aviation expert, Grp. Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), on Sunday, said the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), are not generating enough Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the federal government.

In a chat with LEADERSHIP, Capt. Ojikutu, said FAAN and NCAA revenue should be over N250 billion and N50 billion yearly respectively.

According to him, no one has been able verify the actual earnings of the two agencies yet, budget are approved annually for the government agencies without knowing their yearly accruals.

“FAAN that is projecting N188billion earnings for 2022 should be generating minimum of N250bn from only 4 aeronautical charges alone. We have Passenger Service Charges, landing and parking at only the 4 international airports and the revenue exclude 14 other sources of its IGR at the airports. The NCAA too, not less than N50 billion from Ticket Sales and Passenger Sales Charges ( TSC/CSC).

“None of the responsible authorities, ministries of aviation, finance and national planning, National Assembly has been able to verify the actual earnings of any of the public aviation agencies, yet budgets are approved annually for the agencies.”

Ojikutu, however, lamented absence of auditing of the public and private operators by the NCAA.

According to him, the lack of auditing was responsible for the incessant requests for government intervention funds by private operators in the aviation sector.

“There should be many concerns for us about our domestic commercial aviation sector which I believe need thorough examination by the responsible authorities before Air Operators Certificate (AOC) and Air Operators License (AOL) are issued to them and when their operations begin.

“There should be regular oversight and audits of earnings because none of these are effectively done on the public and private operators to know their financial health because we end up with unnecessary intervention funds, recurring debts among themselves and to external financial institutions.

“I have witnessed about four generations of private airlines operators in this country coming and quiting at short lifespans. Most made money others did not because of bad business plans, poor corporate organisations and management, lack of knowledge in commercial aviation and corruption.”

He continued, “I was a member of a Presidential Committee and knew how the intervention of N19.5billon at 25% interests was collected for the government agencies from the Zenith bank in 2007 against the directive of the FEC and another N200bn at 5% from the CBN for private operators without the knowledge of the ministry.

“Today, none of the responsible authorities (ministries of aviation, finance and national planning, NASS,etc) has been able to verify the actual earnings of any of the public agencies, yet budgets are approved annually for the agencies, but from where?” he asked.