The Ministry of Finance Incorporated, MOFI, on Tuesday met with the Honourable Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika to discuss areas of collaboration and partnerships between the two organisations.

The talks are part of efforts to ensure an all-round development and modernization of Nigeria's aviation sector.

The MOFI delegation to the Honourable Minister was led by the Chief Executive Officer Dr Armstrong Takang who made the case for additional investments for the crucial overhaul of the country's Aviation sector.

Dr Takang further called on the Aviation Minister to assist in actualising President Mohammadu Buhari's agenda of assets, investments managements and optimal risk-adjusted returns, following recent approval to create a National Asset Register, NAR, by the President Buhari. While stating that the Ministry of Aviation represents one of the biggest supervisors of Nigeria's assets through its sister agencies, Dr Takang reiterated the need for sustainable partnership to support sundry economic activities in the airports.

The MOFI team has been mandated by Mr. President to create a comprehensive National Asset Register (NAR) by aggregating, profiling, and managing all national assets and investments, the NAR will be harnessed to strengthen our fiscal and economic realities and the optimization of our investments and assets.

As a result, the MOFI team emphasized that it is key that all assets of the Ministry of Aviation are captured and added to the NAR and sought the assistance of the Honourable Minister for the actualisation of the vision of the Federal government to properly manage its assets and investments and ensuring that FGN derives optimal risk-adjusted returns from its investments and assets.

The MOFI team commented that the development and modernization of the country's airports are crucial for socio-economic development and that while the Ministry had made positive improvements, they believe that more capital investment was required to attract more passengers, cargo movement, and facilitate trade.

Dr Takang indicated that MOFI was interested in supporting the Ministry's efforts in airport development and modernization, including upgrading existing infrastructure and constructing new airports where necessary. He emphasised that introducing innovative aviation technologies would enhance safety, efficiency, and customer experience in the aviation sector and that MOFI would like to collaborate with all relevant agencies and companies to facilitate the use of such technologies and make them available to the wider Nigerian aviation industry. This would help to effectively support various economic activities, such as tourism, agriculture, government, and business travelers in all airports.

Finally, the MOFI delegation assured the Honourable Minister of their strong interest and unwavering support for the growth and expansion of Nigerian airlines by exploring ways in which they can provide financing and investments for airlines to expand their fleets, enhance their services, and compete on the global stage.

This statement was made against the backdrop of the Ministry's efforts to launch the “Nigeria Air” brand and establish the Nigerian Aviation Leasing Company.

Sirika who himself is a member of the MOFI governing council, commended the new board of MOFI and gave assurances that MOFI would be included in the national aviation roadmap in no distant time.

According to him, we have the concession of the airport, we have the airlines, we have the cargo, we have the MRO, we have the leading company and those are the legs of the roadmap which after the press, we will go through them and ensure that MOFI is integral to these plans. He concluded by saying that the Ministry remains committed to ensuring that president Buhari's mandates are adequately delivered.