Acting Managing Director of Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL), Mr. Basil Agboarumi today said export business has witnessed a huge improvement since 2015 when President Muhammed Buhari administration introduced its export promotion policies.
Agboarumi made this known during an interactive session he had at a forum organised by aviation journalists.
Speaking at the Gateway Forum held at the Engr. Saleh Dunoma Press Centre, League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) secretariat, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos, Agboarumi said more Nigerian businessmen are now looking inwards for what they could export to other countries of the world. He noted that export has recorded significant grown since 2015.
“The export promotion policy is a good one. Before now, you would have understood that what happened in Nigeria was that the country was just an import dependent country. I think at a particular point in time, not only in aviation, but in the maritime sector, that export was totally dead. Other countries just produced and poured into Nigeria. I think for the first time in Nigeria, the administration under President Muhammadu Buhari, we have seen growth in export; possibly because of the policy that have been put in place by the government. Nigerians are beginning to look inward and seen what the country can also give out to other countries of the world. It is no longer news that Nigeria is a blessed country; we have so much raw materials in this country that other countries of the world need, but the problem has always been, possibly because of what happened to us in the past, we were interested in what we could gain from outside without looking inward at what we have here and can give to the outside world. But I can tell you sincerely, export has actually grown from 2015 up till now,” the Acting Managing Director said.
He noted that the major products enjoying huge exports from the country included yams, vegetables, palm oil, spare parts ladies hair attachments.
“At the moment yam is one of the major products for export; we have vegetable and it would surprise you to know that because people want their products to move faster, they prefer using this gateway to other gateway corridor. It would also surprise you to know that things like spare parts are exported to other West African countries from here. There are also people exporting palm oil in well packaged containers,” he said.
Recalling the metamorphosis of SAHCOL from an subsidiary of the defunct Nigeria Airways, Agborumi said the ground handling has moved from the backward position from where it used to be to becoming the leading ground handling company in the country.
“We used to be a subsidiary of Nigeria airways until the airline was liquidated and somehow we found ourselves under the federal government under the ministry of aviation until 2009 when the company was put out for privatization and Sifax group managed by our current Chairman, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi bought over SAHCOL. And since that time the story has been a beautiful one. SAHCOL has moved from a company that trying to move from behind and becoming the leading ground handling company in Nigeria We operate from all commercial airports in Nigeria, providing services which include cargo handling, ramp handling passenger handling services and others,” he recalled.
Speaking about competition between the two ground handling companies in the sector, how this could be resolved for the growth of the industry
The acting Managing Director of SAHCOL insisted that cooperation among the sector operators is key to the industry growth noting that without cooperation the industry would continue to craw while other setors would be leaping in bounds.
According to him, “Cooperation is for the best of the industry, We as a company, we have identified cooperation as the tonic to build the industry. We will continue to do our best, take the right step and initiative to ensure that what can give us the kind of aviation that we desire in the future is done. There must come to a point whereby we will definitely need ourselves.
“In other parts of the world, ground handling companies are pooling resources together, it is for us to get to that maturity stage. Even, airlines are cooperating now. When you have airlines in various parts of the world, they complement each other in passenger and cargo operations. We will have better aviation industry once we begin to look at the industry from that perspective.”
