The Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) said it has invested about N1 billion in its Export Processing Centre in Lagos.
Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the Group Managing Director/CEO of NAHCO Plc, Mr. Indranil Gupta said the company had invested about one billion naira in its state–of–the–art Export Processing Centre.
The disclosure comes on the heels of the revelations that the company holds 59 percent of Ethiopian Airline (ET) business in Nigeria.
An Ethiopian Airline (ET) Global Business Analysis has shown that NAHCO has the bigger share of its operations in Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Kano, and Port Harcourt. Services covered include passenger flights and freighters in the five locations.
NAHCO handled a total of N2.8 billion worth of business in the period under review as opposed to N1.9 billion handled by competitors in the same period.
Conclusively, the document showed that NAHCO has a lead of 59 percent as opposed to other competitors who shared the remaining 41 percent.
In recent time, controversy had swirled up around who has the bigger volume in ET’s business between NAHCO and SAHCO. Last week, SAHCO pointed out in a statement that it now handles 100 percent of ET’s business. However, available records circulating over the weekend from NAHCO did not support that position.
Meanwhile, the Group Managing Director of Nahcoaviance, Mr. Indira Gupta speaking further at the conference said a new path was being charted for importers and manufacturers in Nigeria to flourish as citizens brace up for high prices of food and general inflation.
He said Nigeria as a country has the capacity to become the food basket of the entire African continent if the right strategies are deployed.
Gupta therefore encouraged Nigerian producers to ferry their products to various local, regional and international markets, leveraging on the services of airline operators.
He said there was a need to reach out to Nigerian farmers who have products that can be exported.
“Fufu for instance, can have a continental attraction in Africa. It has an organic attraction. I am a firm believer that Nigeria can be the food basket of this continent. The land is there. Ability of farmers to produce in volumes is there,” he said.
The Nacho boss said he had charged his board and management team to focus squarely on this, saying it was much more beneficial for the nation to be exporting than to import.
He added that one of the big changes he has brought into NAHCO since assuming office on December 7, 2021 was been focused on export which inspired the establishment of an export processing center.
The idea, he said was to have Nigerians produce in one stop shop, get the products packaged, before transfer to the aircraft.
“We intend to build similar centres in five major cities in the country including Enugu, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano,” he said.
“A lot of milk in Nigeria is being imported but between Adamawa and a few northern states, there are over one million cows. Can’t they produce the needed milk?” he asked.
Speaking on NAHCO’s expectations for 2024, Gupta said the company intended to bring more airlines to Nigeria while expressing hopes that the purchasing power in Nigeria would improve and help the export volumes.
Gupta stated that the naira devaluation is significantly impacting on the company but efforts were being carefully made regarding review of handling charges, adding that, if the handling companies decide to review, it would only be at a point where they cannot take the situation anymore as the cost of diesel, manpower and other costs had gone up because of the economic situation.
