FG drops Lufthansa as national carrier consultant

By Chesa Chesa
The Federal Government has dropped aviation giant, Lufthansa Consulting, as one of the consultants being engaged to advise Nigeria on the establishment of a new national air carrier to replace the defunct Nigeria Airways.
The Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said that the decision was taken due to stringent conditions given by Lufthansa since it was selected as member of an advisory consortium on the project.
Briefing State House correspondents on Wednesday after the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Sirika announced that Lufthansa had been replaced with AMG (Airline Management Group) and Avia Solutions GE, to join the other members of the consortium to continue providing that the same cost of N341.2 million.
The minister pointed out that government recognised the fact that Lufthansa Consulting is an appendage of the airline group, Lufthansa, “and that might bring conflict of interests because Lufthansa itself may want to join, partner or help in the process during the procurement phase of this transaction.
“And of course, they are members of Star Alliance, members of One World and members of Sky team. Others may feel short-changed if the person advising us sets up this airline, which is going to be private sector-driven, is a member of an alliance which they are not part of.
“Second, since we appointed the transactions advisers in various aviation projects in May 2017, about six of them, five of them have gone ahead, the one for construction of airport, the one for aeropolis and the one for MRO and so on and so forth.,a�? he said.
The Minister of the Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, announced the approval of the purchase of 35 operational vehicles for the Nigerian Immigration Service at a cost of N483.21 million, including the cost of painting the vehicles in NIS colours for N4.09 million.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs.Kemi Adeosun, further announced the appointment of a consortium of banks including Citi Group, Standard Chartered, StanbicIBTC, Whitten-Case and African Practice to manage Nigeria’s $2.5billion Eurobond offer for refinancing external borrowing.
On his part, the Minister of Communication, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, said FEC had approved the purchase of radio equipment to detect and jam illegal radio signals in the country.