The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has emphasised that public-private partnerships are essential for the sustainability of the aviation sector. Keyamo shared this perspective during a recent YouTube interview on O’tega Ogra’s “Unfiltered: The Big Interview”, where he discussed his plans for infrastructure and capacity-building in the aviation sector. He noted that, currently, there is no infrastructure ministry with the capacity to undertake large-scale projects such as maintaining airports to meet international standards.
Therefore, a public-private partnership is the most viable solution. Keyamo also highlighted that for local airlines to remain commercially viable and sustainable, both the private and public sectors must collaborate to ensure that Nigerian travellers are not overly dependent on foreign airlines. He also noted that because the sector runs a deficit budget system, embarking on large-scale projects is almost an impossibility, which is why he stressed the essence of the public-private partnership.
He said, “It’s a multipronged approach we have to that issue because it’s not just one approach that will solve that problem. One, you want to make sure they survive, they are viable commercially and then of course you want to ensure that the flying public also has the best deal in terms of pricing of tickets. Now you just mentioned one of them, to support them, make sure they survive, support their bid to get to challeng.
