On April 30, the Nigerian government approved the establishment of a privately funded aircraft leasing company. This is aimed at easing local airlines access to aircraft and reducing the country’s flight disruptions.
Tackling Nigeria’s ongoing aircraft leasing challenges
The federal executive council in a statement approved the creation of the Nigerian Aircraft Leasing Company (NALC) and incorporated special purpose vehicles (SPV). The SPV are going to be fully privately funded, with no obligation for direct federal investment. The government will provide sovereign guarantees to international lessors (global asset leasing and financial companies) to lower any investor risk that may occur.
This was initially first announced in November 2025, and the leasing company is supposed to act as a central asset to acquire or lease Nigerian aircraft globally to operators. This in turn will allow the domestic airlines to lease aircraft through a single entity backed by government support.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, stated that the initiative is intended to strengthen local airlines’ ability to serve on domestic routes, which have suffered from delays and cancellations.
A $7 billion push to transform Nigeria’s aviation
In this time, the initiative is in hopes to create and improve competitiveness against foreign carriers that dominate the Nigerian market. Keyamo has also appointed African Development Bank’s Integrated Aviation Transformation Programme for Africa (IATPA), a $7 billion content-wide strategy. This is aimed at modernising the continent’s aviation sector and mobilising investment through a proposed Pan-African Aviation Financing Platform.
A letter of intent was sent between the bank and Nigeria is due to be signed at the lenders annual meeting in Brazzaville on May 28.
Speaking at a news conference, Keyamo stated:
“I should announce for the first time that the African Development Bank has keyed into this initiative, because they have an integrated programme for this kind of thing in Africa, and Nigeria is one of their pilot countries.”
Since becoming the aviation minister in 2023, Keyamo has been credited with reforming and improving Nigerian airlines’ access to aircraft financing, including signing practice direction in September 2024 in the Cape Town Convention.
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