LAGOS — Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has called on Nigeria to take the lead in championing the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) as part of efforts to transform the continent’s aviation and trade landscape.
Okonjo-Iweala made the call virtually on Wednesday at the maiden Nigeria Aircraft Acquisition and Investment Summit (NAAIS) 2026 held in Lagos.
The summit, themed “Unlocking Capital, Confidence and Capacity in Nigeria Aviation Industry,” brought together stakeholders to explore strategies for repositioning the sector.
She explained that SAATM, unveiled in 2018 as a flagship project of the African Union Agenda 2063, is designed to create a single, unified and liberalised aviation market across Africa.
According to her, the initiative seeks to dismantle restrictive bilateral arrangements and fragmented national policies, while positioning aviation as a transformative driver of development across the continent.
“Boosting intra-Africa trade, deepening tourism, and providing the connectivity infrastructure required to meet Africa’s growth trajectory demands that Nigeria leads this agenda from the front,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala stressed that the aviation sector holds vast opportunities, noting that the country must shift from treating it as a source of revenue to recognising it as a strategic economic enabler.
She urged the Federal Government to reposition aviation as critical infrastructure underpinning the African Continental Free Trade Area, especially as Nigeria seeks to transition into a high-value, export-oriented economy.
Highlighting structural challenges, she noted that air connectivity within Africa remains costly and inefficient, with passengers often forced to transit through Europe to travel between African countries.
“This raises the cost of doing business and constrains trade. It is a structural barrier to growth,” she said, adding that intra-African trade currently stands at about 16 per cent, while Africa accounts for only about three percent of global trade.
She pointed out that despite representing less than one per cent of global goods by volume, air cargo accounted for nearly 30 percent of global trade by value in 2025, underscoring its importance to high-value and time-sensitive goods such as pharmaceuticals, electronics and e-commerce parcels.
“When air cargo functions efficiently, it does not merely complement trade, it enables it,” she added.
Okonjo-Iweala acknowledged improvements in Nigeria’s aviation sector, including increased private airline participation, expansion of airport infrastructure and enhanced safety records over the past 19 years, but said more progress is required.
She noted that existing airlines must upgrade their fleets and scale up operations to improve competitiveness.
Citing data from the International Air Transport Association, she said the sector currently supports over 216,700 jobs and contributes less than three billion dollars to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product.
She added that international tourists arriving by air contributed about 760 million dollars to the economy in 2023, while Nigerian airports handled 195,700 tonnes of air freight within the same period.
According to her, a country of Nigeria’s size should be generating significantly higher returns and employment from the aviation sector.
“For a country seeking to move up the value chain, reliable and affordable air freight infrastructure is not optional; it is essential,” she said.
She emphasised that transforming Nigeria into a high-value trading hub and a gateway between West Africa and global markets would require sustained investment across the aviation ecosystem.
While increased aircraft acquisition by private operators is important, she said it must be complemented by investments in airport infrastructure, air navigation services and robust maintenance systems.
She noted that efficient and cost-effective operations would enable airlines to serve less profitable routes, reduce ticket fares and expand passenger traffic.
Okonjo-Iweala also observed that African airlines earn less profit per passenger compared to global averages, largely due to high operational costs, with airport taxes and charges estimated to be 12 to 15 percent above global benchmarks.
She, however, expressed optimism that the required transformation could be achieved through public-private partnerships (PPPs), which she described as a proven model for mobilising capital for airport modernisation and transport infrastructure.
“Where properly structured, PPPs have delivered world-class airports and logistics hubs. Nigeria can replicate and even surpass such examples,” she said.
She urged government to maintain a fair and predictable tax regime, promote market liberalisation by opening routes on a reciprocal basis, and eliminating restrictive bilateral agreements that limit airline operations.
“Most importantly, government must see aviation as a strategic economic enabler, not merely a source of revenue to be extracted,” she added.