Aviation contributed $1.3 billion to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016, Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Saleh Dunoma, has said.
This represented 0.02 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP and there are indications the 2017 figure would be much higher than the previous year’s figure given the fact that aviation posted very good earnings last year coupled with increase in passenger traffic and other catalytic benefits.
Dunoma, who quoted from the IATA Study of December 2016, spoke on the side-line of a summit by the Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria (AFARN) in Lagos.
He stated that growth in the sector had led to creation of employment, spurned foreign investments, providing linkage to other sectors of the economy, thus reinforcing global production chain.
Besides, the FAAN chief disclosed that the impact of aviation safety on Nigeria’s GDP is not only local to Nigeria, but it’s on an international scale, as there is a ripple effect on other countries that have bilateral air services agreements with Nigeria.
He summarised the earnings, saying $400 million directly contributed through the output of the aviation involving airlines, airports and ground services.
He noted that $200 million of the sum indirectly contributed through the aviation sector’s security chain and $100 million contributed through the spending by the employees of the aviation sector and its supply chain.
In addition, Dunoma said there is $500 million in catalytic benefits through tourism and $86.7 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
The FAAN boss said that in terms of economics, the importance of aviation safety is staggering and understood only by a few.
His words: “Following every air traffic accident, the public becomes hesitant to fly, resulting in a loss of revenue to the industry. There is a high volume of air travellers, so, a small decline in traffic numbers due to safety concerns can easily result in hundreds of millions of naira transferred to other travel industries.
“Even a five per cent decline in air travel and freight movement due to aviation safety concerns will result in an economic disaster, impacting not only the industry in Nigeria, but globally, for some period of time to come. For this reason alone, aviation safety is of equal importance to every country and economy on the planet.”
He recalled that in 2009, it was recorded that 2.3 billion passengers travelled in the air transportation system worldwide, with only 652 related fatalities.
“However, just 60 years before in 1949, 27 million passengers used air transport and 998 died. This shows an improvement of the safety level of more than 130 times over 60 years. It has also been shown that there is 12 to 15 times likely to be a road accident than a fatal aviation accident.”
He said safety in the aviation industry is highly regulated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (IATA) to ensure that same standards are kept across the world, hinting that this is fairly hard to achieve, as there are different maturity levels across the state safety policy, identifying safety targets to ensure that their states meet the basics of safety requirement.
Dunoma pointed out that there are numerous downsides to having an unsafe air transport system hence the FAAN is working tirelessly with other stakeholders and international bodies to ensure that Nigeria’s airports are safe.
Nigeria as of today, according to him, has 28 airports and a number of regulated airstrips and heliports, 554 licensed pilots, more than 913 licensed engineers and over 1700 cabin personnel.
He said: “We have and continue to engage in numerous safety audits and assessments of our airports to ensure that they meet international safety standards and are also certified safe by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).”
“We have successfully certified our two busiest airports in Lagos and Abuja and we are in the process of certifying our other international airport