Okonkwo hails Tinubu’s $1tr aviation target

Founder of United Nigeria Airline, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, has said the $1 trillion growth target for Nigeria’s aviation sector by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is realisable, with an enabling environment to achieve the objective.

Speaking at the 2025 yearly retreat organised for staffers of the airline and the 4th anniversary of its maiden flight, held in Abuja yesterday, Okonkwo applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the revitalisation of the aviation sector in the country.

Okonkwo noted that the foreign exchange policy introduced since the inception of the President Tinubu administration had impacted positively on operators in the aviation sector.

Okonkwo also noted that the teething challenges bedeviling the aviation sector, like access to foreign exchange, and the trapped fund saga with foreign operators that gave Nigeria a negative image in the comity of nations had been resolved with Tinubu at the helm affairs in the country to buttress his assertion.

According to him, operators no longer go through the nightmare of accessing foreign exchange from the banks to offset bills and fulfill their obligations to their partners abroad.

Okonkwo, who praised the Aviation Minister, Mr Festus Keyamo for putting in place measures aimed at protecting the interest of domestic operators in the country recalled that when the airline made its maiden flight on February 12, 2021, it was the most difficult time in the aviation history due the challenges posed by COVID 19 pandemic across the world.