Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to strengthening aviation financing reforms and improving compliance with the Cape Town Convention during the Aviation Working Group General Meeting in London.
The Minister addressed global aircraft lessors, financiers, aviation lawyers and industry stakeholders at the high-level gathering in the United Kingdom. According to a statement signed by Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Tunde Moshood, the reforms are designed to position Nigeria as a reliable destination for aircraft leasing and financing transactions.
Nigeria’s Aviation Financing Reforms
Speaking at the meeting, Minister Keyamo said Nigeria’s aviation sector had recorded significant progress in implementing the Cape Town Convention framework. He explained that the reforms had already improved investor confidence and expanded access to aircraft financing opportunities for Nigerian airlines.
According to the Minister, aviation growth across emerging markets is often constrained by limited access to affordable aviation financing rather than passenger demand. Therefore, he stressed that the Cape Town Convention was created to reduce legal uncertainty and strengthen creditor protection globally.
Minister Keyamo recalled that Nigeria was among the original signatories to the convention during the 2001 diplomatic conference held in Cape Town. He added that the treaty was subsequently domesticated through Nigeria’s Civil Aviation Act.
Highlighting Nigeria’s progress, Keyamo disclosed that more than 80 per cent of aircraft on the Nigerian register were acquired through lease arrangements. He noted that leased aircraft with expired agreements had been deregistered and exported without operational disputes, reflecting improved regulatory confidence.
Meanwhile, Minister Keyamo revealed that Nigeria’s compliance score under the Cape Town Convention improved from 49 per cent to 70.5 per cent in September 2024 following the introduction of a new Practice Direction by the Federal High Court.
He explained that the operationalisation of the Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorization further raised the nation’s compliance score to 75.5 per cent. Consequently, Nigeria was removed from the Aviation Working Group blacklist.
“These milestones did not happen by chance. They were driven by targeted regulatory reforms designed to demonstrate the Federal Government’s commitment to implementing the Cape Town Convention both in substance and in practice,” the Minister stated.
The Minister added that the reforms had already started delivering practical results within the aviation financing ecosystem. He cited recent successful dry lease transactions involving Nigerian airlines and international financing institutions as evidence of growing market confidence.
However, Minister Keyamo acknowledged several operational challenges still affecting aviation financing arrangements. These include customs bottlenecks, temporary importation processes, foreign exchange volatility and inter-agency coordination issues.
Despite these concerns, he assured stakeholders that the Federal Government was actively implementing coordinated reforms through aviation agencies and judicial capacity development programmes. In addition, he disclosed that digitalisation initiatives within the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority would further strengthen regulatory efficiency.
In a major development, the Minister also announced Federal Executive Council approval for the establishment of a Nigerian Aircraft Leasing Company. According to him, the initiative could unlock more than one billion dollars in future fleet and aviation financing opportunities.
He explained that the proposed leasing company would help Nigerian carriers access aircraft on competitive terms while accelerating fleet modernisation across the sector.
“The Cape Town Convention is more than a treaty. It is a framework for building trust,” Minister Keyamo declared.
