By Aondowase Agabi
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday, approved the establishment of an Aviation Leasing Company (ALC) under Public Private Partnership (PPP).
This is even as it approved the development of an Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System (eCRVS), a platform that will effectively keep electronic records of births and deaths registrations.
Both approvals were given following the issuance of Full Business Case (FBC) compliance certificates by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), the agency statutorily established to regulate PPPs.
The ALC which will be executed by Messrs AJW Consortium as concessionaires, seeks to provide an opportunity for local leases of aircraft to both domestic and international carriers, alleviate the problems of aircraft/engine leasing, costly lease rates and high insurance premium charges to Nigerian airlines.
It will facilitate the ease of doing business for foreign lessors with Nigerian domestic Airlines being a one-stop-shop thereby limiting capital flight and the strong demand on forex.
The project will create employment opportunities for Nigerians which will have a multiplier effect on the economy.
The ALC will provide leasing opportunities for Nigerian and African Airlines to boost their fleet size, alleviate the problems of aircraft leasing and high insurance premium charges, provide an alternative to foreign lessors and introduce competition which would relax the terms and conditions currently obtainable, thereby facilitating growth and development.
The ALC will commences with leasing 8 aircrafts in its first year of operation, increasing the portfolio as it grows to 50 leased aircrafts after the 7th year and remains constant at 70 leased aircrafts by 2034. The ALC then starts to purchase aircrafts outright (instead of lease) after approximately 7 years, once the portfolio exceeds 50 leased aircrafts.
The project is approved with the Federal Ministry of Aviation as grantor.
For the Electronic Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System (eCRVS) N5.3 billion private sector fund is to be injected by the concessionaire, Messrs Barnksforte Technologies Limited.
The project which has the National Population Commission as Grantor seeks to capture and verify births and deaths in Nigeria, provide attestation and verification of certificates to end users on the platform.
Prior to this, these registrations have been carried out manually, a process that has been characterized by low coverage and inadequate data.
The private party will Design, Finance, Build, Operate, and Transfer the Project to the Government at the end of the concession period of 15years.
