Federal Gov. to Provide $55m Grant for Take-off of National Carrier

Nigeria - Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, has clarified that the federal government would inject $55 million in 2018

as the upfront grant to finance the startup capital of the new national carrier, saying contrary to report that the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) insisted on zero funding by the government when it issued the Outline Business Case Compliance Certificate for the national carrier. ICRC had made it clear that the strategic equity investors would not start the national carrier but the government in order to attract credible investors. 

He said the $55million upfront grant, which he described as Viability Gap Funding (VGF) contribution to equity, would be sourced through either a supplementary budgetary allocation in 2018 or development financial institutions like AFREXIM bank, African Development Bank (AFBD), Islamic Development Bank (ISDB) or any other bank.

The minister added that these funding institutions have indicated keen interest to fund the national carrier project because of its bankability and profitability profile. 

According to him, the federal government would not fund the entire project... 

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