Nigeria has lost over $76 billion attempting to run failed government-owned businesses over the last few years, according to a document by the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics LTD/GTE, a non-profit organisation that provides independent, data-driven research, policy analysis and advocacy to promote ethical, sustainable development.

Despite the Federal Government’s approval of 30 per cent debt discount for domestic carriers, the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has warned that Nigerian airlines may continue to struggle to remain in business unless the country’s high-cost aviation regime is urgently overhauled.

The figure, according to the document, presented at the 2026 Vanguard Newspaper Conference by the alliance’s chairman, Dele Oye, represents funds lost to decades of spending and missed financing opportunities tied to major government ventures, including the Ajaokuta Steel Company (ASC), government-owned refineries, and the defunct Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), among others.

Oye, who insisted that “government has no business running business”, noted that while over $8 billion was wasted on the ASC project within the period under review, the failed refinery projects gulped $43 billion, NITEL $5.3 billion and another $20 billion was lost in the aviation sector.

“If Nigeria is to translate Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth into actual inclusive growth, we must address a fundamental structural flaw: our government’s insistence on being in business.

“The private sector cannot be government, and government cannot be the private sector. This is not ideology; it is institutional logic. When the government tries to operate businesses, disaster follows every single time. The evidence from our own history is overwhelming, and we must have the intellectual honesty to confront it,” he asserted

Noting that Nigeria’s livestock sector holds enormous, largely untapped potential, he stated that the country must abandon its long-standing practice of running businesses and instead reposition itself as a facilitator of private sector growth if it is to unlock the vast economic potential of its livestock industry.

CHIEF Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr Muda Yusuf, in a statement yesterday, however, lauded President Bola Tinubu for approving 30 per cent debt relief for airlines, but said it was not sufficient.

The President’s approval was intended to ease the financial burden on operators facing rising operational costs.

Yusuf said the intervention was only temporary and did not address the root of the sector’s crisis.

He maintained that the real threat to the industry was in the multiplicity of taxes, fees and levies imposed by aviation agencies, which he described as excessive and unsustainable.

According to him, charges from key regulators such as the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) consume as much as 35 per cent of airline revenues, leaving operators with very thin margins.

CPPE warned that such a cost structure was incompatible with the economics of aviation and largely responsible for the persistent collapse and high mortality rate of airlines in Nigeria.

It lamented that the industry was operating under severe financial strain, driven by an overly burdensome and fragmented cost regime, and warned that without urgent reforms, more airlines could face operational distress.

The group, however, commended the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, for engaging industry stakeholders, but appealed to the government to move beyond palliative measures.

It called for a comprehensive rationalisation of aviation charges, covering ticket and cargo sales charges, passenger service charges, landing and parking fees, inspection costs, administrative levies, boarding bridge fees, fuel-related charges and import duties on aircraft and spare parts.

The centre insisted streamlining the charges would significantly improve the viability and competitiveness of domestic airlines.