As part of its efforts to optimise business opportunities in the aviation industry, the Federal Government requested pre-qualified bidders to submit their bids in response to the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the establishment of an Aviation Leasing Company (ALC) and establishment of a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) centre at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja.
According to the Federal Ministry of Aviation, these bidders were qualified having passed the Request for Qualification (RFQ) stage of the procurement process. The RFP submission deadline closed on Friday, October 30, 2020 and Tuesday, November 3, respectively. The evaluation of the bids has commenced after which the preferred bidders will be announced and invited for contract negotiations.
Thereafter the Full Business Case will be developed and submitted to the Federal Executive Council for approval and subsequent agreements will be signed between the investors and the FG represented by the Ministry of Aviation.
The Ministry said the objectives of the projects include curtailment of capital flight, easing the leasing process for domestic airlines, encouraging foreign investment (FI), enhancing technology transfer to Nigerians, improving aircraft maintenance turnaround time, localizing aircraft maintenance in compliance with regulation, and generally develop the aviation sector in the country.
The ministry explained that there is no Aviation Leasing Company in Africa at the moment, as the existing ones are owned and run by major international lessors who are reluctant to lease aircraft to African airlines due to the perceived risks, principally revenue, maintenance and legal risks.
