Festus Keyamo, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, has confirmed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has settled the airline industry’s backlog which amounts to approximately $160 million.
Keyamo disclosed this in an interview on Arise Television on Monday.
According to him, there are two different backlogs of airline funds trapped in Nigeria, but only those which fell under the purview of the federal government and the CBN were completely settled.
He said the other funds are trapped in commercial banks and they are neither the responsibility of the central bank or the federal government.
Following the CBN’s announcement of the settlement of airline industry’s backlog in the country, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said about $700 million of Nigerian airline sector’s funds remained in Nigerian banks.
Earlier in January, the apex bank said it had fulfilled its pledge to clear the backlog of foreign exchange owed to foreign airlines in the country after the payment of all verified claims by airlines with an additional $64.44 million to the concerned airlines.
In September 2023, President Bola Tinubu directed the CBN to engage in quarterly reconciliatory meetings with foreign airlines to address the backlog issue.