Illegal private jet operations cost FG trillions in revenue – Report
A preliminary report has suggested that activities of illegal private jet operators who engage in multi-faceted activities have bled the coffers of the federal government to the tune of trillions of naira in revenues over a period spanning over two decades of illegal operations without the appropriate authority swooping on them.
The Ministerial Taskforce on Illegal Air Charter Operations and Related Matters the Federal Government set up recently disclosed that it uncovered mind-blowing revelations on how private jet operators spuriously shortchange government without paying all the necessary levies and taxes on such operations.
The report, released at the weekend by the committee among others revealed that most foreign registered aircraft acquired by wealthy Nigerians as their private jets are used for such illegal charter operations.
The secretary of the Task force, Mr. Roland Iyayi explained that such foreign-registered aircraft that are not under the purview of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority by virtue of the foreign registry.
“In totality, what we’ve been able to deduce is that the federal government has incurred huge losses in terms of revenues, particularly in the last two decades”
“So, in the last couple of weeks, four weeks, what we have been able to establish clearly are the following. In 2005, the available records indicate that there were 44 private business jets in the country. Two decades on, in 2024, that number has risen to 157. That’s an increase of 357% over two decades”.
Currently, reports indicate that a midsize and super-midsize jet comes in at $4,200 – $8,100 USD per hour, and a long-range jet or group charter flight on a VIP airliner can cost $7,200– $17,800 USD per hour or more in Nigeria.
Iyayi further said: “We have indeed uncovered the prevalence of illegal air charter operations in the country. Even more alarming is the fact that we have uncovered that these illegal air charter operations are not only restricted to small time operators, but also include some high-net-worth individuals, using their private jets.
“Opaque Passenger Manifesting, conflicting/inadequate regulatory issues. Most of the complicit aircraft are foreign registered, removing them from the close scrutiny of the NCAA. This is a huge revenue loss to the coffers of the federal government.”
Also noted by the committee are the non adherence to civil aviation regulations by owners and operators of such aircraft to the status permitted by law that restricts them to Private Non-Commercial Flight (PNCF).
The illicit act was not limited to small time operators alone; it said adding that the conditions attached to the issuance of the PNCF are grossly violated by the operators.
It regretted that the NCAA also failed to enforce the conditions on PNCF to the private jet owners, and explained that violators of such licenses are adept at using opaque passenger manifest in order to beat the regulatory agency’s oversight system.
“Again, we’ve established some element of conflict and inadequacy in the regulatory regime associated with private flying in Nigeria”.
