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Chief Operating Officer for Dana Air, Mr. Obi Mbanuzuo, has said the inconsistency of government policies remained the bane to efforts at attracting requisite investments to unlock the full potential of the Nigerian aviation sector.
According to Mbanuzuo, the frequent changes in policies by successive governments has served as a great disincentive to investors who otherwise would have committed funds into the type of long term projects required by the government to grow the sector and boost its contribution to national GDP.
“In doing a root cause analysis, I came to the conclusion that policy somersaults – and not the policies itself – has been the big problem in Nigeria,” said Mbanuzuo who was one of the panelists at the LAAC Conference held recently in Lagos.
He said over the years Nigeria had come up with lots of laudable policies to run it’s aviation sector and deliver dividends to investors and government, but what most investors hold against the nation’s aviation sector is a situation where every newly appointed cabinet minister jettisons the previous policies set by his or her predecessors once he comes on board and replaces them with his own vision and policies without considering the dire impact on investors.
“But aviation anywhere in the world is not a short-term thing in terms of investments. We like certainties in policies to be able to take long term decisions,” said Mbanuzuo.
The Federal Government in recent years has been seeking for partnership with the private sector to grow it’s airport infrastructure as well as float a national airline. The Dana Air boss therefore said there was the need for continuity in government policy in order to attract long term private sector investments into the industry.
