Aviation stakeholder, Samuel Caulcrick, has called for thorough structural reforms of the Bank of Industry (BoI), including recapitalisation, to enable it to effectively support Nigeria’s airline operators amid a rising financial crisis.

The call follows a recent appeal by the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) to President Bola Tinubu, urging the government to recapitalise the BoI as a dedicated source of single-digit interest loans for the aviation sector.

The President, in return, has asked the operators to formally submit their request in writing.

Already, the indigenous carriers are grappling with a sharp spike in the prices of aviation fuel.

The operators, last week, complained about a surge in the price of Jet A1 from N900 as of February to N3,300 in April 2026, nearly 300 per cent increase.

They lamented that the situation was placing intense financial pressure on their operations and threatened to suspend operations if the government did not intervene.

Caulcrik warned that the current financing structure of Nigerian airlines was unsustainable.

He said local carriers are forced to rely on commercial loans with interest rates ranging between 30 and 35 per cent, which is far above the global average of about three per cent.

Caulcrick agreed that the BoI offers far lower lending rates of about nine to 10 per cent to customers, but expressed concerns about its limited liquidity to meet the aviation sector’s capital-intensive demands.

He insisted that without access to affordable, sector-specific funding, the operators would continue to depend on high-interest borrowing to finance critical operations such as fuel procurement, an approach he described as “economically unviable”.

To address this, the aviation expert advocated far-reaching reforms that go beyond capital injection.

For instance, he canvassed for an amendment of the BoI’s enabling Act to designate it as the sole financial transaction hub for Nigeria’s aviation industry.

Under this, he posited that all aviation-related financial flows would be centralised through the BoI, creating a stable and consistent pool of capital in both local and foreign currencies.

He insisted that such a system would reduce reliance on multiple commercial banks, cut transaction costs and establish a more favourable interest rate regime to support aircraft acquisition, maintenance and other operational needs.