January 08, (THEWILL) – The leading ground handling company in Nigeria, Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc, has unveiled plans to invest N4 billion in cargo export processing centres in four major airports across the country.
Already, the aviation company has built N1 billion worth of the facility at the Lagos airport, just as it plans to replicate similar centres in all the five main cities of the country like Abuja, Port-Harcourt, Kano, and Enugu.
Speaking on the plans at the weekend in Lagos, the Group Managing Director of NAHCO Aviance, Indranil Gupta, gave a condition, saying the project would only be embarked on if the feasibility study supports it.
Gupta said, “I am a businessman, so, I know how to count my pennies. Before I put money on the table, I have to know that something is coming. We have spent about N1 billion on the export processing centre. Unless I start seeing results coming out of this, I will not invest in other stations. However, having said that, one of our objectives, between me and BCD, is to take Kano to its original glory. We have a strong focus on Kano.
“We want to take Kano to its original glory. It deserves to be that. How many of you know that in the State of Adamawa, there is a young Nigerian who is doing dairy farming? He exports as far as the Middle East. His exporting processing capabilities are about 150000 litres per day of fresh milk. At the moment, he is using only 30 per cent of that capacity. He is making cheese out of it, he is pasteurising the milk and selling it and other milk products. He is exporting. He is making yoghourt of the brand name of Admilla. I am a Nigerian Indian. We are trying to reach out to such farmers. We are telling guys like him to come and let us do it.
“We are working very heavily with him to see whether he can supply the rest of the country. For example, a lot of the milk that you get in Nigeria is imported whereas, between Adamawa, Taraba and other neighbouring states, you have got close to about 20 million cows. Is this not sufficient to supply the whole of Nigeria? When we talk about economics, we are not mindful of these facts. What is our internal potential?”
The NAHCO chief disclosed that one of the things he had done since his assumption of duties as NAHCO MD was to get his board to focus clearly on export, stressing that cargo volume in Nigeria is about 95% import-dependent, which means high dependence on the micro-economic capability of the country buying but noted, “When you export, you are not depending on that.
“In export, you earn dollars, you earn foreign exchange. It is much more beneficial to us as a community, as a nation and it is important to export than to import. The big change in focus that I have been able to bring about in NAHCO is one of the big changes; we are completely focused on export, even as I am talking GDIBCS is working feverishly in the background to make these connections happen. When I said to make these connections happen, I am saying both intercontinental and sub-continental. So, we are focused on intercontinental as much as we want to focus on intracontinental.”
In his outlook for 2024, Gupta said he hoped that the purchasing power would improve this year; a situation he reiterated would help in their export volumes and help bring more airlines to Nigeria.
Gupta, who expressed optimism for 2024, said, “I hope the purchasing power will improve, that will help in our input volumes, that will also attract more airlines into Nigeria. The total number of air travellers is between 19 to 20 million. Nigeria is not a poor country, but we look forward to more entrepreneurs, so all these can help us get more Nigerians to fly.”
Also speaking on the export processing centre, Group Executive Director of NAHCO, Saheed Lasisi, said NAHCO is spearheading the exportation business with the centres coming up as links between farmers and serious exporters.
“Our focus is to encourage Nigerian exporters and farmers. Some of our staff were in London for training on packaging and others recently and we have also identified five major airports for this. We are also hopeful that purchasing power will improve,” he said.
Anthony Awunor, is a business correspondent who holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics (UNILAG). He is also an alumnus of the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria Kaduna State. He lives in Lagos.
