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By Chinelo Obogo
Travel consultant, Ikechi Uko, has criticised what he says is the lack of a clear vision among Nigerian airlines to dominate the West African market. He spoke with journalists recently, saying that while Nigerians remain active travelers, the aviation sector within West Africa is a different story as other dominant airlines have captured a larger market share compared to Nigerian airlines.
Uko, who is the founder of Akwaaba Travel Market, expressed concern about the decline of Nigerian dominance in the West African aviation sector and emphasised the need for a clear vision, strategic planning, and a data-driven approach for Nigerian airlines to reclaim a leadership position.
Why Nigeria lost out of aviation business
I would not agree that Nigerians are losing the market. Nigerians still travel, maybe not in large numbers like before. Before we were the major entrepreneurs in West Africa, we supplied almost all the wealth that were distributed in West Africa. Now other people are also rich, and they can travel, but I don’t think we are losing the market. The only thing we have lost is that we have lost control of the aviation business in West Africa. There are dominant connectors of West Africa, Air Senegal, Air Cote d’lvoire, and ASKY, they cover more of West Africa than any Nigerian airline. So aviation in West Africa now is not in the hands of Nigerians anymore. But when you look at the market generally, because of our population, in terms of economic activities, we still play a major role in the market. But in aviation, we seem to be losing.
I don’t see any Nigerian airline that has a vision to dominate West Africa. I don’t see a plan by any Nigerian airline to be the major player in West Africa. I have not been told, I have not seen any. The ones that are already flying, the way they have aligned their business is beyond West Africa. So, until one comes that plans to be the king of West Africa, then we can start having discussions. We can’t be the hub, we are not the hub, and there is no plan by any Nigerian airliner that I know to fly to every capital in West Africa. What I knew Ethiopian Airlines did was when any African country became independent, they try to connect a flight to that destination. So, there was a long-term plan to be the masters of Africa by Ethiopian Airlines and now it has benefited them. There is no Nigerian airline I know that had a plan to dominate West Africa. Maybe some of them planned it internally, but it has never been communicated publicly for outsiders like me to know that there is a plan to be the masters of West Africa.
Take Asky airlines for instance, it is an airline that was set up from the beginning with such a plan to be a Pan-African airline and ASKY means African sky. So the vision is there. It is captured in the name and in everything they do. They fly to 28 destinations in 26 countries with only 14 aircraft. So from the beginning, that vision is very clear that we want to be the king of West and Central Africa. We want to be the major airline in West and Central Africa and within five years, they achieved that. Now they are connecting East Africa; they are connecting South Africa. They are now going to go to France. But they stayed, more than 10 years consolidating on West and Central Africa. They don’t have domestic markets. So they primed to go international from there but they started slowly, small, planned well.
A Nigerian airline could also have a spin-off that would dominate the local markets; just like Jambo Jet and now create an international flight service and have an international link with big airlines. So the small airline will mop up people from various airports and bring them to Nairobi for the big airlines to take them to international designations. I thought Air Peace was trying to do so with the city hopper. From my study of the data provided by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Air Peace international operations have less delay, have less complaints and actually done well compared to its local operation.
Tourism
The first barrier with Nigeria is visa. Our government has not figured out how to make Nigeria a tourist destination. They have never asked people like us, so that we could tell them that visa on arrival is the easiest way to open up for all Africans. The government issued a statement in 2018-2019, saying Nigeria would issue visa on arrival. That was done badly. Even at that, as we are now mastering it and improving on it, government has just added first $90 biometric charge. So, if your visa was $25 before, it is now $100 +. Then this year, government has now changed the biometric to $190. There is no visa you pay for coming to Nigeria that is less than $200. Why would you be charging fellow Africans $200 in this economy just for visa? That is terrible. That’s one.
The second is that Nigeria is secure in most of the places the tourists will go to. We have not had issues of tourists having problems in Lagos. We have not had issues of people having problems in Enugu, in Uyo, in Port Harcourt, in Abuja, right? Even in Kano. So for most people who are in tourism business, you must be guided. Don’t just pack your bag and say you are going to Kutuwenchi for tourism. Then you turn out and say Nigeria is not secure. No, you are not wise. There is a hiking epidemic happening in Nigeria now. Every weekend, or there about, more than 10,000 hikers are moving around Nigeria. There is never a sad story. The only sad one we had was a guy who drowned in the waterfall in Nassarawa two years ago. But these hikers are moving because they do due diligence, they take local guides. But for people who don’t know how tourism works, you say, oh, it’s unsafe. Why? You carried your bag without even talking to the local guide. No. The ignorant people are usually the loudest and insist they want to talk. But tourism is going on in Nigeria. Domestic tourism is having its best time in Nigeria.
