Africa’s largest economy has restricted access to foreign exchange for imports and for investors seeking to repatriate their profits as the nation faces a severe dollar shortage. The Vice President of the International Air Transport Association for Africa and the Middle East, Kamal Al Awadhi, described the talks with Nigerian officials on the release of the funds as a “turbulent ride”. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “We continue to move away and hope that this will hurt the country in the future,” he told reporters in Doha on the eve of the IATA airline leaders’ annual meeting there this week. Al Awadhi, a former chief executive of Kuwait Airways, said Nigerian officials had blamed the lack of foreign exchange for not repatriating the airline’s revenue. A Central Bank spokesman in Nigeria did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nigeria had previously blocked revenue from foreign airlines before later repatriating the funds. IATA has so far held two rounds of talks with Nigerian officials, including the Central Bank, which Al Awadhi said were “non-compliant” with the release of cash. Another round of talks between IATA and Nigerian officials is expected to begin soon, the airline lobby group said, without specifying when. “Hopefully we can find some sort of solution from where it starts to fall (but) it will not pay off, I doubt, in a single shot,” Al Awadi said. IATA says $ 1 billion in foreign airline revenue is withheld across Africa, although Nigeria is the only country where the value of frozen funds has risen. At $ 450 million, the largest amount withheld by any African nation in May, it was 12.5% higher than the previous month. Algeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, which together hold $ 271 million in foreign airlines, defaulted on their debts in May. Eritrea remained unchanged at $ 75 million, according to IATA. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Alexander Cornwell. additional report by Camillus Eboh in Abuja. curated by Barbara Lewis Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
