Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says plans were underway to issue airline operators licences to import aviation fuel.
Kyari made the disclosure during an investigative hearing into the hike in the price of aviation fuel organized by the House of Representatives on Monday.
Kyari stated that the decision became necessary following the hike in aviation fuel across the country and in line with the demands of the Airline Operators Association of Nigeria (AOAN).
“As requested by the airline operators of Nigeria, there would be granted licence by their authority to import petroleum products, particularly ATK, so that they can have a way of benchmarking the sales from other customers. They can also bring in cheaper products whenever it is possible,” Kyari said.
Speaking during the public hearing, Mr Allen Onyema, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Air Peace said airfare in the country will continue to rise if urgent actions are not taken to reduce the price of aviation fuel.
Mr Onyema who spoke on behalf of AOAN lamented that the hike may persist unless the government grants airline operators permission to import aviation fuel.
“We want to inform the house that we are demanding that we should be given a license to import this fuel. If we can buy jets that cost hundreds of billions of dollars, we can afford to import this fuel. Let NNPC give us the right to import this fuel, we won’t complain, sir,” Mr Onyema said.
He argued that if airline companies can buy planes worth millions of dollars, they would have no trouble importing the essential commodity.
Lamenting that the cheapest flight ticket costs N70,000, Mr Onyema warned there would be a further increase if efforts were not made to address the fuel crisis.
