OWOLABI: WE LOST OVER N2B TO CLOSURE OF CARGO WAREHOUSES
give an example; a passenger is travelling to London, he gets to the airport, he wants to check-in, he knows all the necessary procedures, you know how long it will take even before you get to the check-in counter. He checks in, after all the ordeal, he wants you release his baggage; he has to stand by because you cannot put that baggage on the conveyor belt because it is not functioning. So the passenger will have to wait to see what is happening to his baggage first.
Then you have carousels all over the area, some will work today another one will work tomorrow. Those things are the enabling environment that I said should be looked into; the structural aspect of what an airport. It is very important. And I have been saying this, my kudos goes to the former Minister (Princes Stella Oduah) when she was doing the transformation, I said it is a beautiful thing. But we appealed that this transformation should look at the structural aspect which is the necessary tools that will allow the transformation to be seen and that is what is happening. We need urgently to look into the structural aspect I mean the necessary tools that would enhance facilitation at the airport. So what do you think the handling companies, the clearing agents, Customs and importers lost during the two weeks shut down of the warehouses?
I think more than 2 billion, because it affects even the agents themselves. I am sure they went home with empty pockets. Then the customers that need their good s for Christmas, it is affecting them. That is why I said we should look carefully when we are taking certain decisions either on strike or either a close up because of the after effect of it. It is not good for a nation. You have just finished the office complex at the airport. What challenges did you face while building your new warehouse and what are your next strategy to consolidate on your gains and competitive edge?
First of all glory be to God the almighty, It is one thing to have a dream, it is another thing to actualise it. And while you are actualising it, it is not by your means, it is not by your power, it is by the grace of Allah and the support of the ownership plus the board. With the 100 per cent support of the ownership, Dr Taiwo Afolabi, our chairman, we have been able to achieve both our dreams and then we are still moving forward because we have not reached there yet. Even though some people will say we have gotten somewhere, we are still doing that and we are still grateful to him. He is not like some Nigerians that would buy some property and start siphoning the money out of the country or siphoning the money to other areas of their need. As far as I am concerned, he has been pouring back whatever we have been able to generate and what we have been able to do is what you are seeing now. So we are gradually moving forward, towards what we wish to actualise in aviation handling; the way it is done overseas, everywhere in the world. Even out there, some of the people who make the great changes are Nigerians and they do it perfectly well over there. So I believe there is nothing stopping us to be able to showcase what is being done abroad in Nigeria as long as we are honest in everything we are doing. So that is where we are. This edifice and the almost completed warehouse will put you in a higher pedestal. If you have more handling companies come in to join you and the Nigeria Aviation Handling Company Plc (nahco aviance), how would you cope with the competition?
As far as I am concerned Nahco is our brother in progress. It is our duty to able to accept and adjust our differences and allow us to play it as it is been played all over the world. Of a fact, more handling companies are welcomed as long as they can follow the rules that have been put in place by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the government. I am only enjoining my brother company, Nacho that it is high time we looked inward, to look into ourselves, our services and ask if we are really getting what we are supposed to get from these services. Are we short changing ourselves or are we really playing by the rules for the benefit of us and for the benefit of Nigerians. It is time for us, whatever our differences are, we will respect them and we will continue to respect them and I believe that they too respect us. With the tight financial situation among airlines, how have you been coping with the issue of payment for your services with the airlines?
That is why I said with what we are trying to do to put the best and to allow the best for the airlines; to give them the best they need, then we too need to have the best from them and we can only do that successfully by providing the correct service, the correct enabling environment to our airlines and cargo freighters and so on. And also for us to able to look at it and say, yes as it if biting, we too we are buying fuel from the same source. We are engaging more staff to be able to meet their needs and we are even engaging more staff to supplement what the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) is supposed to do. So you can see that we are really in a tight corner in terms of revenue generation, based on tax here and tax there and yet because of the need, our mission to able to showcase that yes, handling companies anywhere in the world we can meet it and we can beat it. Managing Director of Medivew Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole recently urged government to streamline all the taxes paid to aviation agencies to one single charge. What is your reaction to that?
I am very, very grateful to him for saying that but if you see what the Honourable Minster (Osita Chidoka) is doing now, I think he is setting up a committee to look into it, so let me keep quite on that. I think he too has seen the need for them to look at all these taxes and bring them to the correct perspective has it is done internationally. While we recognise that we need to make payments as it is been done all over the world, it has to be done properly. It is right there in the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s annexes. In fact, in some of the annexes no government official or no agency can wake up overnight to tax you without negotiating with you, without allowing you to be able to talk about it and to discuss about it. But here, I think the Honourable Minister is so wonderful that he decided to set up a committee to look into these areas, so we will wait for him and see what is going to be the outcome. What projects do you have and what is the timeline for their completion?
You know that I was supposed to have finished this project some few months ago. Don’t forget that we have the crisis of the rains, you have the crisis of the strikes, we had two strikes affecting us such that the areas we had supposed to work we will not be able to work, we have the areas of infrastructure that doesn’t even belong to us that we have to get ourselves involved to make it workable to allow what we are trying to showcase to be smooth for our equipment.. We bought many equipment but cannot utilise some of them because we cannot move them on bad road. So we have to engage with FAAN to see what we can do on those areas. In a nutshell, it is difficult for anybody to sit down and say in a month I am going to finish this project, especially in Nigeria, except if those necessary environments are created then you can pin point.
But having said that, by the special grace of God we must be able to have a complete warehouse before January 2015 ending. But we are not stopping there as I said, we want to showcase international standard here. And we are moving from here to other airports. Already it will get to Abuja. As small as that place is we have been able to transform it. And then in domestic here in Lagos, at our exports, we are moving towards that area too to be able to do it as it is. It will take months but for this which already we have set out target on, I am sure very soon we should be able to complete it. Because we are carrying the Customs along, we are carrying agencies along; we are making provision for the enabling environment for the Customs to be able to operate. We have two banking facilities. So, it is kudos to BPE (Bureau of Public Enterprises) that privatised this company and it was bought by Skyway that is investing so much to modernise the company and make it world standard. What do you think will be the future of export and import in Nigeria?
I am happy you raised that issue. When I was in New York I noticed that when Ghanaians come with their yam and beans, the US Customs allow it and this is because they have reached agreement with their Ghanaian counterparts, but it is not so when Nigerians bring such produce to the US. They are not allowed. I met one of the officers of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) briefly at one of the meeting that the federal government set for easy movement of products and services. To create enabling environment for passengers within the airports and its environ and this include part of this export as well. I think what we need is packaging.
When we build cargo warehouse for export, we should have people to be involved in packaging our produce. Don’t you think it is because of packaging that South Africa is bringing their fruit to this country and they sell them at Shoprite?
Yes the Minister of agriculture is doing his best, the government is doing its best, they should look inwards to package our flowers if we have; to package our cocoa very well, to package our pineapple, which is much in the South-South, to package our nuts, package our onions, even orange. If you look at parts of the North, there are some certain areas there that have the best mangoes. It is very big that we can’t even see such abroad. It is packaging. Have we been involved in using these things and packaging it well and having an agreement with these countries that you want to go to?
That is part of revenue; that is part of where you can make foreign exchange. I am so amazed and so glad that the Minister of Agriculture has done his best but he is yet to look inwards to advice those who need to do packaging. It is packaging that is more essential. Packaging is what the government needs to encourage and not necessarily for them to get into packaging, it should be thrown open and assisted. Nigerians should be involved in packaging, warehousing, to package these things out for export. It is very, very essential and that is where we are not looking at, which means the standard organisation should come up with programmes educating people that if you want to send things out to America, this is what they need, this are the ways to do it.
It is not that they should just sit down and you will want them to come and meet you. They need to reach out, they need to have seminars, programmes inviting the farmers and everybody to this programmes. telling them how packaging is essential. The type of temperature and how you must do it and how it needs to be carried out, that when they get to the next destination at least the Customs there will see it. But not that they should take banana which is already ripe here and then you are sending it to America, they will just send it straight into the trash can. But when you package it and give it the correct temperature it will still be green, and then our yam will still be beautiful. So we need packaging, we have enough of things here to go for exports, most of these airlines coming in they are going back empty, especially the freighters. So, it will help the cargo operators and it will help the country and it will help Nigerians.