DETERMINED to become the foremost cargo destination in Africa, a team of different professionals led by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has visited the leading air cargo airports in Africa to benchmark their services.

Kenya currently leads Africa in air cargo business while Nigeria is number 5.

FAAN had earlier set up the Aviacargo Roadmap committee to design a plan that will lift Nigeria to the first position in the shortest possible time.

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To meet this target, the FAAN team had to find out what the other airports have done well and why Nigeria is failing despite its huge economy, production capacity and population.

The benchmarking visits done in partnership with Ethiopian Airlines Cargo and Kenya Airport Authority (KAA), enabled the officials from Nigeria to engage with stakeholders in the cargo ecosystems in both countries. There were facility tours of equipments, terminals and transit sheds in both countries.

The FAAN team which was led by the Director of Commercial and Business Development Olumyiwa Femi-Pearse also included: the Chief of Staff to the Managing Director of FAAN, staff of Business Development, Cargo Departments, Company Secretary and Legal Adviser, the Coordinator of the Aviacargo Roadmap committee IkechiUko and two other members of the Aviacargo committee.

Legal issues concerning airports as free trade zones were raised with the Ethiopian and Kenyan officials and how those issues have been resolved in both countries. The proliferation and attendant charges by agencies at the airports were discussed during the stakeholders engagements with both the government and private sector players.

The team went through a detailed tour of all the air cargo facilities available at Bole Airport Addis Ababa, led by the MD of Ethiopian Airlines Cargo, Mr. Abel Alemu and his team.

The tours took them to the Cold Chain, pharma, perishable and dry goods section where the technological modernisation and the E-Commerce projects were of Interest to the Nigerian team.

In Kenya, the Acting Managing Director of the Kenya Airport Authority, Henry Ogoye, received the Nigerian team.

In Kenya, the Nigerian team who were taken round the leading cargo transit sheds by the operators of the terminals, visited dry cargo sheds, perishable goods sheds, flower export sheds, fruit export sheds and others. The Aviacargo team rounded up the tour with visits to Nigerian Embassies in Ethiopia and Kenya where they exchanged ideas with the diplomats on opportunities for cargo in both countries.

 

Dr Geoffrey Chima on behalf of the Ambassador received the team at the Nigerian Embassy in Addis Ababa.

The team leader Mr Femi-Pearse told the Nigerian High Commissioner in Kenya Ambassador Yusuf Yunusa that “this fact-finding visit is an eye opener for Nigeria. We have identified the gaps in knowledge and facilities. We are going back to implement some of the lessons learnt. Nigeria will become a major player in air cargo business in a very short time.”

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