(Adds Emirates, quote, context)
By Felix Onuah
ABUJA, March 23 (Reuters) - Nigeria is aiming to release
money from foreign airlines' ticket sales, held up by dollar
shortages in the country, and has already started making some
payments, Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said on Thursday.
Nigeria is facing severe dollar shortages, forcing many
citizens and businesses to seek foreign exchange on the black
market, where its naira currency has progressively weakened.
The dollar shortages have made it difficult for some foreign
airlines that sold tickets in the Nigerian naira to get their
money out of the country.
A spokesperson for the global airlines industry association
IATA said last week that Nigeria was withholding $743 million in
revenue earned by international carriers operating in the
country, the highest amount owed by any nation.
Sirika did not provide a timeline for releasing the trapped
funds. He said Qatar Airlines had $201 million blocked while
another $216 million was owed to IATA airlines.
"We are doing our best to get the monies released," Sirika
told reporters in Abuja.
He added that Emirates airline had got most of its funds out
of Nigeria and had around $35 million that still needed to be
released.
President Muhammadu Buhari in February directed the central
bank to increase the amount of foreign currency allocated to
Dubai's Emirates, after the airline suspended flights to and
from Nigeria because it was unable to repatriate funds.
Oil is Nigeria's biggest foreign exchange earner, but
rampant crude theft in the Niger Delta and years of
underinvestment have hit output and strained government
finances. For a few months last year, Angola overtook Nigeria as
Africa's biggest oil producer and exporter.
(Reporting by Felix Onuah; Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha; Editing
by Hugh Lawson and Jane Merriman)
Reuters Messaging: chijioke.ohuocha.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))
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