Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has stated that the removal of taxes in the aviation sector cannot be decided by one individual, noting that such policies are subject to collective government approval and legislative review.

He said this at an event in Abuja on Monday, celebrating 100 years of aviation in Nigeria. The minister clarified that despite industry pressure over multiple taxation, tax removal lies beyond the jurisdiction of the aviation ministry alone. He stressed that statutory levies require input from key institutions, including the Ministry of Finance, tax authorities, and the National Assembly.

“You can see that I am not the owner of Nigeria. There’s a Ministry of Finance. There’s a tax authority. The Minister of Aviation cannot wake up overnight and say, I’m removing taxes. It’s a whole ecosystem, a whole government system that will meet on that. Some of these things are statutory; they are laws already.”

He explained that the legislature must also deliberate on tax adjustments before they can be enforced. According to him, President Bola Tinubu has already shown commitment to addressing tax burdens in the industry.

“The National Assembly will be involved too, to remove some of these from the laws. But let me tell you, Mr President himself is so proactive. For the laws that are not taking place, for example, the tax law that was about to take place, he immediately excluded aviation, the four percent tax. The money could have been higher.”

Keyamo added that a review process is now in motion to tackle multiple taxation affecting airline operations.

“The President has set up a team to review all of these multiple taxations. And so we are getting the ball rolling.”

He maintained that the minister alone cannot abolish statutory taxes. “I, as aviation minister, cannot stand up overnight and remove this tax, because I’m not the owner of Nigeria. I’m not the owner. It’s the federal government that owns this money. So we are getting there.”

Beyond taxation, Keyamo highlighted the infrastructure deficit as the biggest challenge facing Nigeria’s aviation growth. He said the country must develop fully functional airport hubs capable of handling seamless international transit.

“The big elephant in the room is infrastructure. We need to convert our major gateways to proper hubs where you can fly in, go through a process of processing you without even entering the country, into another wing, and then you board again and fly out. Now, we have airlines that have the capacity. They are already doing international routes.”

He argued that Nigerian airlines like Air Peace could operate more profitable, long-haul connecting routes if modern hub systems were in place.

“So, for instance, there’s no reason why Airpeace cannot take you from London. If you are coming to Nigeria, or if you are a resident in London, you can buy an Airpeace ticket going to South Africa. And so they lift you from London, they bring you to Nigeria. You don’t need to come to Lagos. We need that facility to process you into the next wing, and you board the same Airpeace, you are connecting to South Africa.”

He added that domestic carriers rely heavily on such infrastructure to expand their operations. “So we need, first of all, infrastructure to develop proper hubs to assist our airline. Because they also need the hubs. Without those infrastructures, they cannot grow in a way to fly.”

Keyamo listed finance and aircraft leasing access as the second major obstacle to airline growth. “The second one is to ensure that we empower the airlines to have access to credits, access to financing, and access to lease aircraft. These are the two major problems. If not, the problem is not in the traffic.”

Despite current challenges, he maintained that market capacity, population, and location are in Nigeria’s favour. The new tax reform law, recently passed as part of the federal government’s fiscal restructuring, has consolidated several tax statutes into a unified framework aimed at widening revenue generation and reducing administrative overlap.

However, the aviation industry has expressed concern over the removal of certain long-standing exemptions, including duties on aircraft parts and components, VAT on tickets, and levies affecting airline operations. (PUNCH)

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