The Secretary-General of Africa Civil Avia- tion Commission (AFCAC), Funke Adeyemi, has urged all eligible Nigerian airlines to take ad- vantage of the Single Africa Air Transport Market (SAA- TM) to expand their opera- tions across Africa.
This is to enable them also invest in infrastructure to ensure safe, secure, efficient, sustainable and competitive operational environments that promote easy connectivity, business growth, and job creation across the African continent.
This comes against opposition from some Nigerian carriers that are not comfortable with the air transport liberalisation policy, which is a project of the African Union (AU) to create a single market for air transport in Africa. While some of the country’s airlines have embraced the policy, not a few feel that it would open up the country’s aviation market to the predatory instinct of some African airlines without looking at the huge advantages it brings to them while widening their scope of operations. Adeyemi spoke at an event in Abuja to support the full implementation of SAATM in Nigeria hosted by the Nige- ria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The SAATM-PIP Cluster 1 Coalition Roadshow, which is the first of its kind in Africa for states identified to proceed with the accelerated implementation of SAATM held between April 18 and 19, 2023. With the aim to accelerate the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) leading to the full and sustain- able implementation of SAA- TM, the project was launched on November 14th, 2023 by African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) in collaboration with dtates and partners under the theme “Acceleration of Air Transport Liberalisation in Africa to Improve Continental Connectivity and Integration.” Twenty ready states under SAATM PIP are Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d Ivoire, Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Ga- bon, Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, and Zambia. Beyond SAATM-PIP having a cluster of six with diverse man- dates, it has further outlined a chain of actions (five in all) to accelerate its full liberalisation.
They are the launching of the SAATM PIP; appointment of SAATM ambassadors; alignment of BASAs with YD; a cluster of states to increase 5th freedom routes; and the SAATM PIP implementation roadmap and JPAP. Adeyemi disclosed that the immediate goal of AFCAC working with all the stakeholders (AUC, AFRAA, IATA, ACI, UNECA, UNWTO, RECs, etc.) with support from technical and financial partners is to im- prove the 5th Freedom Traffic penetration in Africa from the current level of 14.5 per cent to 30 per cent by 2025. She stated that as more 5th freedom traffic rights are granted through liberalisation, airlines can manage to connect more city pairs in Africa, which will in turn lead to the full maximisation of the benefits associated with the direct and indirect gains from a competitive environment.
According to her, honouring Nigeria with hosting right is to engage with Nigerian stake- holders; see how efforts can be intensified to implement practical strategies and take concrete actions to address the challenges preventing the achievement of the projected growth; share ideas to boost the development of air links to and from Nigeria. “This is in an addition to promoting tourism, trade, and investment development, especially through improvements in the regulatory framework, infrastructure investment as well as operational incentives for airlines in order to create a competitive environment for aviation business to thrive,” she noted. Meanwhile, the Federal Government has affirmed its commitment to support any policies and programmes that would support and project the full implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) in Nigeria.
The Minister, who was rep- resented by the Permanent Secretary of the Aviation Ministry, Dr. Emmanuel Meribole, stated that the air transport market in sub-Saharan Africa presented a strong dichotomy in Southern and Eastern Africa wherein the market is growing, with few major African carriers dominating international and domestic markets, which are becoming increasingly concentrated.