By Chinelo Obogo
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The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently revealed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has cleared 98 per cent of funds trapped in Nigeria which accumulated from ticket sales by foreign airlines.
The aviation body said that at its peak in June 2023, Nigeria’s blocked funds amounted to $850 million, significantly affecting airline operations and finances in the country as carriers faced difficulties in repatriating revenues in US dollars.
In reaction to the high volume of blocked funds, many airlines blocked their lower inventories to Nigerians, causing a massive hike in airfares. However, as of April, IATA said 98% of these funds have been cleared, while the remaining $19 million is due to the Central Bank’s ongoing verification of outstanding forward claims filed by the commercial banks.
The Chief Commercial Officer of RwandAir, Andrew Owie, who visited Nigeria recently, spoke to the media on the losses it suffered during the period, as the exchange rate worsened significantly between the time the money was stuck in Nigeria and when the foreign carriers received it. He, however, revealed that RwandAir prioritised its long-term relationship with Nigeria over short-term financial gain and took the decision not to block their lower inventories, hence, Nigerians were still able to access lower airfares.
On the milestones achieved by Rwanda’s national carrier in the past two decades of operations, Best said the airline has resumed its daily flights to Lagos from Kigali, Rwanda.
Trapped funds
RwandAir never closed their lower inventories during the period when trapped funds was an issue. As the head of Commercial, I gave a standing instruction that we should not do it. In the days when it was rosy and when Nigeria gave our airline support and embraced us, why should we now do it? We believed that it was only a temporary issue. However dark it was at that time, we believed that it would so pass. There were airlines that closed their inventories and meetings were held with the authorities and stakeholders and it was clear that we never did. We have been consistent and given all the support we have to Nigeria. The then head of travel agencies also confirmed that RwandAir never closed their inventory. We incurred losses because we had money that was stuck in the naira at the time the exchange rate was about N400 to a dollar. But when we were getting the money back, we got it at N1500, so we lost so much money but that didn’t stop us from giving our unwavering support to the Nigerian market by leaving our lower inventories open. We saw it as a sacrifice that we had to make to show our unwavering commitment to Nigeria.
Increased frequencies
We are progressively expanding our fleet and we want to be able to double it in the next five years. We don’t want to bring all the aircraft and dump them in one place; every year we keep bringing new aircraft and five years from now, we have doubled the aircraft and we have a lot of routes that we have earmarked for these airplanes.
Today, we operate five times to Lagos and we want to do it every day of the week. As of last year, we were operating five or six times to London but today we are doing it daily. Any of the flights you take in Nigeria today you can connect to London. It’s only an hour and thirty minutes you have to stay to be connected. It’s not that you are dropped and you’d have to wait for a long time before you continue your journey. As soon as you get there you are connected. We have a very healthy, robust transit desk”.
Loyalty programme
We have a loyalty programme that is not just centred on RwandAir. With what we have, you can partner with other airlines such that when you fly us, you earn miles and can also use the miles you earned with us to board other airlines. Already, we have it with Qatar. When you fly with us and earn miles, you can use it to fly with Qatar and vice versa. We are also partnering with supermarket chains where you can shop anywhere in the world, earn miles and use the miles to fly with us or any of our partner airlines. I always advise passengers to remember to log their boarding pass into their profile at the airport so that they can earn their miles.
Interference
I wish we had government interference because it would have taken the burden off us so that we can have someone to blame if things go awry. There is zero government interference in the running of the airline. Since I came on board, I have not seen a single politician in my office. They have no business with you. Whatever you need, they are there to support you but are given all the authority to run the organisation without any interference. Because of the integrity of the leadership, the government knows that they can’t even contemplate interfering in the running of the airline because you would be held responsible for the consequences of anything. If there was interference, you can always point to someone to heap the blame on if things go wrong, that is one of the reasons why no government official even contemplates such a thing. That is why today, whatever decision you take has to be sound enough. Everyone is responsible for every decision taken. That is the beauty of it because professionals are allowed to do their jobs without any form of interference
Recruitment policy
RwandAir has zero tolerance for racism or xenophobia. They don’t care who you are. The country is very open to people from all over the world. I am a Nigerian and I used to work in Arik Air for 11 years. It was from there that I was headhunted through LinkedIn. Many companies claim to be equal opportunity employers but it is only on paper. But for RwandAir, you don’t need to know anybody to pull any strings for you. Recruitment is strictly based on competence. That is why I say that if you want to know how things should work, you need to come to Rwanda.