Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the central bank to raise the amount of foreign currency allotted to Dubai’s Emirates, after the airline ceased flights to and from Nigeria because it was unable to repatriate cash.
Nigeria is suffering significant dollar shortages, pushing many individuals and corporations to seek foreign cash on the underground market, where its naira currency has increasingly deteriorated.
The United Arab Emirates airline suspended its Nigerian flights on two occasions last year as local cash received from ticket sales was stranded in Africa’s most populous country.
In a telephone discussion with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday, Buhari urged a resumption of Emirates’ flights to Nigeria and the easing of a “blanket” visa restriction placed on Nigerians by the UAE, Buhari’s office said.
Buhari told the UAE leader that the “problem of the Emirates money was getting due consideration alongside those of other foreign airlines operating in Nigeria,”” it added in a statement.
The central bank in August 2022 issued $265 million to airlines to cover outstanding ticket sales, following which Emirates restarted their Nigerian flights in September, only to stop them from the end of October due to the same problem of frozen money.
The International Air Transport Association warned last year that Nigeria was stopping airlines from repatriating hundreds of millions of dollars in earnings.
Oil is Nigeria’s biggest foreign currency earner, but persistent petroleum theft in the Niger Delta and years of underinvestment have harmed production
