820 travel agencies get N196m from aviation bailout

At least 820 travel agencies are getting N196 million from the N5 billion bailout grant the federal government gave to the aviation industry.

Daily Trust learnt that the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) got N196m from the bailout which was recently shared among airlines, ground handling operators and Aviation service providers.

According to the details of the sharing formula sighted by our correspondent, 50 per cent of the amount approved was shared to agents in category A, 30 per cent to agents in B, and 20 per cent to agents in C in line with the directive of the government.

While the federal government approved 383 agencies, the list of beneficiaries was increased by the leadership of NANTA to 820 beneficiaries comprising 701 members in category A, 108 in category B, and 11 in category C.

As of the time of filing this report, disbursements have been made to 788 members while 33 returned due to incorrect account details supplied.

“The secretariat is reaching out to these members and the Sharing Committee is also reconciling some errors around category mixups and omissions,” the information made available to members revealed.

When contacted yesterday, President of NANTA, Mrs Suzan Akporaiye told our correspondent that the fund had been disbursed in line with the government’s directive through the aviation Ministry.

“The fund has been disbursed according to what their government approved,” she said.