There are strong indications that most private jets in Nigeria carry foreign registration because their owners do not want the ownership traced to them. A top source at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, the regulatory agency, which registers all aircraft operating in the country, disclosed that 80 per cent of the aircraft in the country carry foreign registration as a result of this.


The source, who asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter, said, ”They prefer not to register in Nigeria because in the process of trying to do so, they will need to reveal who really owns the aircraft to us; that has to be in our own files. And you know, security and other agencies, such as the State Security Service and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, come to us for information regarding certain people and aircraft, which we have to release to them.


“This is why most of the billionaires register the aircraft outside the country and then bring them to Nigeria to fly.”


The Chief Executive Officer, Airfirst Nigeria Limited, Mr. Gabriel Abatan, said because of the fear of possibly having their airplanes grounded by perceived political opponents in power, some politicians often prefered to register their private jets in foreign countries.


The implication, according to him, is that the Nigerian government may not be able to ground the plane for political reasons except for reasons relating to drug or arms.


However, Abatan said that most of the billionaires claimed that they registered their aircraft abroad to avoid paying higher insurance premiums on the airplanes.


”Insurance premium on Nigeria-registered aircraft is about 40 per cent higher on the average than other foreign countries’ like South Africa, United States, United Kingdom and other countries where most Nigerian private jets are registered. This is because Nigeria is in the group of those countries considered by the insurance companies as security risk states,” he noted.


The Airfirst CEO said most Nigerian rich men also prefered to register their private jets in foreign country in order to get higher resale value whenever they decide to sell them. He said, ”Most private jets that carry Nigeria’s registration are usually undervalued in the international market. Often, their owners get them sold at a price approximately 20 per cent lower than the prevailing price in the international market if it were to carry another country‘s registration.”


A former Managing Director of Associated Airlines, Mr. Alex Nwuba, also said that higher resale value was one of the major reasons most private jet owners prefered to register them in foreign countries.


However, he said that the development was having negative effects on jobs among Nigerian pilots and engineers.


The Chief Executive Officer, Finum Aviation Services, Mr. Sheri Kyari, said that the Ministry of Aviation and the Presidency needed to address the problem by compelling private jet owners to register their planes in Nigeria.


Kyari, an aeronautic engineer, who is also the Publicity Secretary of Aviation Round Table, an industry pressure group, said, ”We have been talking about this for a long time. But because most of the people involved are like sacred cows, the government is dragging its feet over it. Some of them claim they have some funny wet-lease agreements. Some of the airplanes are owned by some politicians, who have skeletons in their cupboards, and as such, they want to keep them in foreign registration to stop government from impounding them ”


The Head, Research and Statistics, Zenith Travels, Mr. Olumide Ohunayo, said that the Nigerian business jet market had begun to experience a boom but South Africa had been “the country reaping the money because almost all business jets are registered in South Africa.”


”Nigeria is taking pride of growing the business jets market while South Africa is taking the money,” he said.


Meanwhile, the National Air Corporation, a South African aviation firm, which helps Nigerian billionaires to get South African pilots for their private jets as well as provides maintenance services in Nigeria, denied the allegation of not presenting Nigerian pilots and engineers for validation in South Africa.


The firm also denied the allegation that it does not employ Nigerian engineers to render support services while maintaining those jets in Nigeria.


According to a representative of NAC in Nigeria, the firm has not received application from qualified Nigerian engineers.


Moreover, he said that the company‘s operation in Nigeria was still relatively small.


The Chief Executive Officer, Belujane Konzult, Mr. Chris Aligbe, however, said that the issue of attitude could not be ruled out. According to him, most Nigerian rich men have more confidence in the foreign crew.


He said most of them did not always make plans to hire and maintain Nigerian professionals, adding that they were not also ready to take part in tackling the manpower challenge in the industry.


However, he said that Nigeria needed to train and retrain more manpower as there were about 443 expatriate pilots and engineers working on private and commercial jets in Nigeria.


He said the government and the private sector needed to invest more in training more Nigerians.

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101212105878

Wiki Leaks cables. . . . Nigerian branch.

Looted money - looted peace.

Heart attack will catch them one by one for looting Nigeria dry. They will know no peace. Criminals!

NGpatriot,helinues

they know what they are doing

Register my jet in Nigeria so one jealous Aboki Civil servant will wake up and use illegal Federal might to sieze it