AIRLINE OPERATORS SEEK FG’S INTERVENTION OVER BANK CHARGES
“So Nigerian operators are forced to buy with cash and these aeroplanes are quite expensive.
He explained why it is difficult for Nigerian airlines to make profit in their operations.
“By the time you buy aeroplanes worth millions of Dollars, you are talking of billions of Naira and it will be very difficult if you now have to go to the financial market to borrow that huge sum; with high interest rate it will be very difficult to survive. That is why the environment is not conducive,” Mohammed said.
He noted that AGM is also a forum for shareholders to give specific approvals for example, for final dividend, scrip or bonus issues, raising capital, acquisition or divestments.
“It is appreciated that shareholders, employees, customers and suppliers contribute to the success of the company but the AGM is the exclusive platform of shareholders to have their say about the company’s performance,” he said.
He urged the shareholders to ensure that with their advocacy, laws and regulations are not inimical to business and investment growth, adding that collaboration improves effectiveness immeasurably while engagement with the companies is preferable to confrontation.
“The AGM offers an opportunity to seek to protect and enhance the value of the members’ shareholding. Also, it is a forum for accountability, transparency and reporting from Board of directors to the owners of the business that is the shareholders who in general meeting the highest decision are making body of the organisation,” he said.
Explaining the purpose of the seminar, the National Coordinator ISAN, Sir Sunny Nwosu, said it was meant to enlighten the members on they are expected to play at the various AGMs.
The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has congratulated the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) and the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan for the peaceful atmosphere that reigned supreme during the just concluded presidential elections.
The body has also charged the in-coming government to introduce urgent policies that would help to improve the aviation industry.
In a congratulatory letter, the association said the task to rebuild the aviation/airline sector must remain on course in the light of many issues that domestic operators have consistently put on the front burner for government’s attention.
“Against this background the AON wish to draw government’s attention to issues agitating the minds of operators which are not limited to the following: the need for aircraft maintenance hangar in the country, the exclusion of domestic airlines by the Central Bank of Nigeria window for credit facility, the skyrocketing price of aviation fuel and the multiple tax regime by aviation authorities to domestic carriers,” AON said in the letter signed by its executive chairman, Captain Nogie Meggison.
The operators also called for the removal of Value Added Tax (VAT) on air transportation as other modes of transportation, including foreign airline operating in and out of Nigeria are not paying VAT; improvement