 Alright, welcome back. It's time for our second hot topic and it's something positive, something happening in our aviation sector. The new minister, Festus Keama, S.A.N., has secured partnership with Canadian Aviation Electronics. I want to find out more and how much of a big deal this is. And we've been joined by Ullumide Uwayo, General Secretary Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative. Good morning to you. Good morning. So tell us, how big a deal is this for Nigeria? Well, I think there's a much bigger picture because the other women started living in Nigeria about three weeks now. It went to Oslo. Now we have to get signed agreement for some equipment to be supplied to the United States Management Agency. This is how to help those airports that have communication issues. You know, we've always mounted the issue of Chakon and at the end of the day, when the pilots still complain about it, I've been difficulty with communicating with the air traffic controllers at some airports. So there were some airports in the country. So that was the first place the minister stopped with his team and then those equipment are supposed to be coming in very soon to Nigeria before proceeding to the U.S., to the Ongar, Ongar, Ongar to support the federal government there and make some agreement on aviation by the time we met before proceeding to Canada for the account conference. And thereafter, this deal came out, right? But the companies are supposed to supply some equipment that supports our security and safety systems in their mission in Oslo. And I think that's the most important. Well, let's talk about the aviation generally, Nigerian's aviation industry. And I'm glad you have the Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative. I mean, let's go back 63 years ago or maybe 50 years ago when we had it good in this country, Nigeria Air. Do you see this administration being able to revive that? Because, I mean, we saw what we saw with the last administration, where we saw all sorts of drama surrounding Nigerian air and all of that. Do you see this minister, Fesos Kiamo, being able to sort of remove that shame from Nigeria? Well, by virtue of his profession, being a lawyer, I think what he meant were, Ongar, more of litigation, disagreements, you know, threats, and court litigation. So, I expect that being a son and a fellow of the east of arbitration, he has the requisite qualification to tackle the issues of ground industry. For me, it's not for him to hit the ground running. I've said that before and I'll say it again, that hitting ground running is going to fall. He needs to stand, take a break, look behind and see how some of these things can be corrected. If you notice that immediately he came in, on his first visit to Lagos, he gave an order that the Air Force, all airlines should move before October 1st. That's been his thing. Why are you trying to get him into a loop just a little bit? But then the first three days in office, and we got what he turned out to be, passengers were queuing on the road, the airlines had been delayed, flights, flights were not being changed, because of that harsh and harsh decision. I think he would have taken his time then, come back in a pronouncement. It was when airlines are not like a big layers of the vulcanizers that just carry all the machine and move to the next place. Airlines, they sustain the processes and they also have vendors who also work with them and they all need to plan successfully to move the whole team to the new terminal. But you see, the new terminal again, despite its aesthetics, it does not meet with some of the operational requirements that are needed for bigger aircraft. And that was why it was difficult for the airlines to move there. And so the bedlam, and I think that was quoted by him setting up a committee to see how, and an external committee liaising with the airlines and see how the movement can be smooth and without any issues. But you see, that committee would have been the first thing to come up, rather than being the other in the coming after the order. And that's why we saw that bedlam. I think that mistake, she was woken up there. This industry is not a, it's not about being ugly. I have my way. You need to discuss the stakeholders about taking decision. There are so many things, there are so many books for him to do. Happily, at the last webinar, he said he has been a consecutive witness for EFCC, for past ministers in aviation. He will not prosecute the panic either. It was also part of the team that he was going to tell us. So he said he knew about the landmines in place and he's going to ensure that if they don't separate them and separate the industrial activities, I want to work on that. I also want to see him do a lot of discussion with the official lawyers. I think they should call them so they can help them navigate through the naughty issues of agreement in place and how. Because when you do not have agreement as a circumstance, you scare away investors and that investors, they don't stand up. Would you say there's a lot of politics in that sector? And we don't say politics. I think the problem we have is that we'll be very unlucky. We've been afflicted by the horrible set of every ministers. Who are easy to grab the press and grab social media handle proclaiming the achievement. Just like the style I do I deal with the model of airport. You will not complain. You will not say anything about these activities then. Everybody will throw the remodeling on your face. But look at what has happened today. They're still on trial about mismanagement of France and some of the shots she took during our film. One of these shots is the new terminal, the Lagos Airport, that's now uncomfortable and they're not demolishing buildings just for that airport to be able to operate optimally. Those are one of the decisions and I think it's time to begin to call our public officers back back to make a cut off, make a cut off. There's quite a list of the actions as public officials. Okay, let's look at these chips that the minister has been making and these collaborations, these deals he's been getting. Recently he welcomed the Egyptian Civil Aviation Investment Services and they are offered to Nigeria. Do we need all of this? Of course, also adding this partnership with the Canadian Aviation Electronics, do we need all of this support to get our own airline off the ground, would you say? We need all this support, all these activities to get our own airlines, not airlines up in place because as of today we have the highest number of domestic carriers in Africa, despite not having the biggest economy, we have the highest number of domestic carriers. But then these domestic carriers, when you look at the equipment, they are far, far behind when compared to other countries. South Africa has only about six domestic airlines, Mexico has seven, Egypt itself has five, Morocco has four and these four carriers have more aircraft than, I will tell you, one of the airlines in those countries have more aircraft than all the other carriers in Nigeria put together. So we need to see how we can consolidate that process of building strong carriers. And I mean building those carriers, they need to save funds and that's why the Egyptian team we are here, they are here to invest in the maintenance and repair of a haul. If you remember that they won the contract of the National Anger Project under the immediate past minister, they are here to kick off. But again, why would you tie the hands of all that MRO organizations in Nigeria because of the Egyptian company? We have, we have quite a lot of people, we have the Arab contractors and we have seven global, these are all MRO companies, immediately built and looking for expansion and investment. So if the Egyptians want to join them, they said that they joined the team from Ghana, said they can expand what's on Ghana or go and start down independent rather than ask the federal government to give cover for them, for them to operate. That would not be right because we already have some, they're here in Nigeria. And once again, they are invited and I wish they could join the market and help us build our industries, our innovation industry. Okay, still talking about the challenges, the trapped funds, you know, foreign airlines trapped funds in Nigeria, that is still a major issue. How best you think this should be resolved and how soon are we looking at having all of that, because traveling, traveling has become very problematic for Nigerians because of the high cost of, of fares. Well, you're right. You remember the president just returned from UAE, we met with the United Arab Emirates president on the, on the need for the airlines to return back on the routes. And I was, my only joy there is not even about the visa to, to be given to Niger, but if we have Emirates, it's yet coming back on the, on the Lagos and the Gujarat, that means we have no capacity. We don't have no capacity. This, by the time those airlines are not actually stopping about, maybe about, it's only about 20, 25% of those people that stop in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, they risk will be on point bearing. Now, if you have this capacity, then you are sure that we have that, which literally means you have more supply and you expect prices of ticket fares to drop, by a bunch of the services by those airlines. But then why did Emirates leave, Emirates left the cost of the trapped funds? And the, the, the, the, the, the, the icing for them was where they wanted to buy a visual fuel in Nigeria and they wanted to pay in Naila with it, with the funds that are trapped there. The other communist refused and said they were going to collect the money in dollars. And that was, that was not that simple. I would, at this point, stop servicing the district and the Gujarat, and that was how Emirates grew that of Nigeria. We need, it's an obligation, it's an international obligation that was, that we have signed in every, it's a certain, in every better service agreement. All airlines, after payment of taxes, charges and any other fees, the remainder of their ticket sales should be remitted to their home country. It's, it's not negotiable. It's, it's, because when you, when you go high on them, there are other rules of beating up. What happens that you, you, you may have it very difficult to get to, your insurance might be increased when you, increase when you go forward in the, in the, in the air for, to ratio of the insurance, which, which another company, when you want equivalent, they, they give you the, at a higher rate and most treated because they, they will not want to have their first trapped in the judges like, like the other airlines. So we are not dealing with one airline. You are dealing with the international committee that is connected. So as you hit the foreign airlines, so also at every order, organizations, any international body that you want to deal with, concerning aviation, you also have to consider that they might fall into this trap and look, I will set so much good, but so many roadblocks for you, so that their funds will not be trapped. And I'm, I'm going to set those roadblocks, your cost of opportunities increases. And that's why we need to resolve this issue of our, our standard trap, trap funds so that we can get back into the committee of, committee of ratios that have been very, very business-friendly in the aviation industry. And the UAE visa ban on Nigerians is not yet lifted, is it? Maybe the previous folks should tell us. But I know that UAE has not said so. Okay, let's look at the five point agenda of the new minister, Mr. Festus Keamo. I'm sure you're aware of them. I had asked the captain this, this question last week, and I'd like to get your take on it. The five point agenda, Federal Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development. Number one, ensure strict compliance with safety regulations and continuous upward movement of Nigeria's rating by Aikau. And then support for the growth and sustenance of local airline businesses whilst holding them to the highest international standards in the aviation industry. Number three, improvement of infrastructures in the aviation industry. Number four, development of human capacity within the industry. And number five, optimizing revenue generation for the federal government. Do you see these capturing, aptly capturing the situation in the aviation sector and being able to go ahead? Yes, I agree. I agree. Like those before him, they call their own road map, or another call is an agenda for the industry. I think it captures the industry in totality there. If it's optimizing revenue for the government, I think that's what I need to address, because when you're optimizing revenue for the government, you might also hope to the airlines. As of today, two airports, Lagos and Abuja, Lagos and Abuja are the most expensive airports in Africa. And that is not a good deal. Who supports the Indian Airlines? Because they don't like this airport, rather than foreign airlines. We kind of cost. So we're not optimizing why we must be ready to bring down costs. We're ready to bring out taxes. That's already a problem in terms of the multiple taxation. It's killing cargo, in terms of cargo trade and rates. We need to work on that. And so on. They've been optimizing. They need to address all these issues that will improve operations and profitability for their own ground airlines. We must address that. You cannot have the most expensive airport in Africa. Lagos and Abuja. And say you want to optimize revenue for you. We are ready to build industry. You cannot build industry when you have the most expensive airport. That must be addressed. You are killing flights. You are killing operations. Also killing the airlines. Again, I think another good thing about the KPI is, as we just listed, if you want to ask them to do that, if we support the local airlines, that has been a rare bleed in the industry for some time. And again, most people say they will say it and we don't see it. I want to see how you want to support them. I want to be sure they support you. But I'm happy that it's possible that the airlines to task that they must also meet with the international standard. The international standard here means about a pretty upright on the schedule, about a treaty or passage that's right, and then the regulators are quite lost. When passengers, when passengers are delayed or passengers have complaints over delays, cancellations, and all that is related to flights, so I think that's very important that as people, as he has promised to support the airlines, he's offering to hold the airlines accountable for their services to the engineering passengers and that they move those who are already there to say, I mean, I would not be implemented for the airlines to see that they have met with the international standard. Because the international standard, if you do not, if you delay flight periods, there's a certain period of time that there's compensation. If it goes beyond this time, there's a refund, if you don't delay that night, there's a hotel, all those things have not been refunded at the time. The regulators have not been able to hold the airlines to meet with their response when flights are made. Again, the airlines have also listed issues beyond them that are causing the release, which are about eight or nine of them, and which are outside the probability of the airlines. So it has the VIP movements, the carousel, carousels have the airport, the baggage, the parking space, bedstrikes, equipment, aircraft equipment that when in time is brought back to the country and delayed time from customs. So a lot of the issues are listed there, and the government also needs to address to see to ensure that passengers come up with a system and apply. Again, I'm not going to mention all the sunset airports, airports that close by six p.m. And when you have such airports, they are forced to release flights to airports that are working far and to clear up operatives that close by six p.m. So they decide that aircraft can land and take off before it can come to a one-down. So there are so many other issues outside the airlines that they need to address. So it's not only the airlines. If you sit here and you support local airlines, but I want you to hold them to five minutes each and understand them. The agency sometimes conducts a preview. The Niger Airspace Management Agency for the Airport Authority of Nigeria and the agency should also be held up to be there in the international standard of operations and transport. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Lumideo Huayo, for your time this morning on the breakfast. Thank you for having me. Mr. Lumideo Huayo is the General Secretary of Aviation Safety Roundtable Initiative, and he's been our guest on our second hot topic. Well, that's the much we have for you on the breakfast this morning. Do stay with us for the rest of the programs you have lined up for you on Plus TV Africa. And don't forget the breakfast comes again tomorrow morning with Inyango. I am Maureen Menon-Huizigwe. Good morning.