Nigeria’s aviation sector received a major continental boost on Wednesday as Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo unveiled an ambitious push to position the country as Africa’s aviation hub during a high-level engagement with the African Development Bank in Brazzaville, Congo.
Keyamo, who is serving as the African Champion of the Integrated Aviation Transformation Programme (IATP), told the President and Governors of the AfDB that the continent-wide $7 billion aviation programme could unlock massive economic opportunities for Africa — with Nigeria poised to take the lead.
Speaking during the dialogue session, the minister aggressively marketed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the aviation sector, while pitching Nigeria’s newly approved Aircraft Leasing Company as a game-changing initiative capable of transforming aircraft financing across Africa.
According to Keyamo, the AfDB should mobilise capital to support the Nigerian project, insisting that the initiative could become a model for other African countries seeking to deepen aviation capacity and reduce dependence on foreign lessors.
“I unveiled President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the Aviation sector and rolled out the potentials of the sector, especially the newly approved Nigeria Aircraft Leasing Company and why the Bank should mobilise capital to support it,” Keyamo said.
He argued that Nigeria had already laid the critical legal and regulatory foundation needed to make the leasing company succeed, citing the domestication of the Cape Town Convention, the update of the Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorisation (IDERA), and the restructuring of aviation insurance policies to align with global industry standards.
The minister stressed that the reforms had positioned Nigeria ahead of many African countries in aviation financing readiness.
The meeting also appeared to win strong backing from the AfDB leadership, with the bank’s president reportedly expressing satisfaction with Nigeria’s presentation and pledging support for the success of the IATP initiative across Africa — particularly in Nigeria.
In a major diplomatic and economic milestone, Keyamo later unveiled Nigeria’s Country Compact for the aviation sector before proceeding to the signing of a Letter of Intent between the AfDB and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The agreement commits both parties to work closely toward operationalising the Integrated Aviation Transformation Programme across the continent, with Nigeria expected to play a leading role in the implementation drive.
The development is being seen as another strategic move by the Tinubu administration to attract investment into the aviation industry and reposition Nigeria as a dominant player in Africa’s air transport economy.
