Brazil-Nigeria Businessmen Wooing Air Peace For Direct Flights
If everything works to plan, direct flights linking Nigeria and Brazil may commence before the end of this year.
The two countries are renewing interests in bilateral trade relations and Air Peace has signified interest to fly the route, giving hope to their businesses to overcome the lack of direct flights that has been one of their logistics problems.
“The chairman of Air Peace has indicated interest to offer the service of direct flight between Nigeria and Brazil. Hopefully that will come into play by November. At least, you have heard that there is a trade mission being planned in November. It will be good that we can fly directly,” said Anibe Achimugu, the managing director of Arewa Cotton and Allied Product Limited.
Achimugu is one of those whose businesses are taking a hit from lack of direct flight and hopes that Air Peace commences operation soon.
Of particular concern is the issue of lack of direct flight, which makes it extremely difficult for businessmen and women to transact business, thereby shrinking the volume and value of imports as well as exports.
Brazil is actually six to seven hours away from Nigeria but travellers have to have to go through Europe or South Africa or Dubai to get to Brazil owing to lack of direct air-link. This takes 13 hours and also costs a lot of money.
This and other issues that have hampered trade between both countries formed the focus of discourse at the just concluded Brazil-Nigeria Business Forum organised by the Brazilian Consulate in Lagos in commemoration of the Bicentennial Independence of Brazil.
The event focused on renewing efforts and strengthening bilateral trade relations the two countries had enjoyed in time past.
A decade ago, Nigeria-Brazil bilateral trade rose to as high as $11 billion. Relative to $1.3 billion recorded in 2021, this represents a far drop of over 88 per cent.
This is even as Nigeria remains the biggest economy and trade partner in Africa to Brazil – the biggest economy in South America.
“We are trying to use the business forum to raise the profile of Brazil here in Nigeria and this will help the business community,” the Consul General of Brazil in Nigeria, Francisco Luz, told our correspondent in an interview.
According to Luz, the determination is to break the challenge of logistics and other issues that hamper bilateral trade relations between both countries.
He believes that the business forum will be one of the biggest facilitators for both countries to resume trade and subdue the issue of direct flight.
“Nigeria businessmen found it very difficult to go to Europe or the Middle East before going to South America that would have taken them 7-8 hours,” the President of Nigerian-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NBCCI), Alexander Okafor lamented.
The cut-off of direct flights between both countries has led to drop in business flow, shrinking their income.
He, however, expressed optimism that a new era beckons as both countries work closely to reconnect businesses again.
“Brazil is the biggest economy in South America as Nigeria is in Africa. With the visit of this trade delegation, and the meetings we had, the future is bright. It is another opportunity for Nigerian businessmen to tap into Brazil and see what we can do to improve our economy and trade relations.”
“For those who are importing goods from overseas, it is a wonderful opportunity because Brazil’s products are of standard, their currency and labour are cheaper than America and Europe. So that makes their products more attractive and it is going to be a win-win situation,” Okafor, who is the executive chairman of Chicason Group, said.
He corroborated that Air Peace, an airline carrier, is showing the interest to start providing direct flight services because of its already existing relations with Brazil.
The NBCCI president added, “I think the traffic will be very encouraging. What we need to do is just to create awareness on the opportunities we have between Nigeria and Brazil.
“So, the renewed effort to rekindle trade relations again is welcome. My take is that we are going to maximise this opportunity to connect back to Brazil and I will plead with the governments of the two countries to see what they can do to connect us back with the link to Brazil and Nigeria.”
Currently Air Peace international routes include Accra, Freetown, Banjul, Dakar, Monrovia and to Dubai via Sharjah International Airport, South Africa, China and connect to 23 other destinations. Adding Nigeria-Brazil routes will deepen the airline’s income and profile.
While the issue of direct flight hangs on the one hand, Achimugu on the other hand urged the Brazilian consulate to consider the time for processing of visas.
“They need to get back to their government to make sure that when such applications come, particularly through the NBCCI, they need to be attended to expeditiously, while also urging the Nigerian government to look beyond the Green Imperative and also pay attention to other sectors.
“We obviously need a partner that will help us. I think the Brazilians are interested in long term investment to develop, produce and transfer technology so that we can produce locally,” he added.
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