By Semafor Africa
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Nigeria is considering granting approval for local airlines to begin using Chinese-made aircraft for domestic flights.
Nigeria’s civil aviation authority is in talks with COMAC, the state-owned Chinese company that is pushing to compete with Western companies in civil aircraft manufacturing.
Approvals will take months to be finalized, with Abuja requesting that COMAC offer dry lease agreements — an arrangement to provide aircraft without crew — to interested operators, the Nigerian aviation regulator’s boss told Reuters.
Nigeria is eager to enter into partnerships anchored on “strategic autonomy” by forging pragmatic trade alliances, Nigeria’s foreign minister said this month.
A deal with COMAC would build on recent decades of relations that have seen billions of dollars worth of Chinese investment into Africa’s largest economies: Nigeria’s revamp of rail development has also been led by Chinese companies.
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