The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has called on Nigeria to champion the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) initiative.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Okonjo-Iweala made the call virtually at the maiden Nigeria Aircraft Acquisition and Investment Summit (NAAIS) 2026 on Wednesday in Lagos.
The summit had the theme: “Unlocking Capital, Confidence and Capacity in Nigeria’s Aviation Industry.”
Okonjo-Iweala noted that SAATM, unveiled in 2018 as a flagship project of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, seeks to create a single, unified and liberalised aviation market across the continent.
She explained that SAATM aims to overcome bilateral arrangements and fragmented national policies, ensuring that aviation plays a more transformative role in Africa’s development.
“Boosting intra-African trade, deepening tourism, and providing the connectivity infrastructure to meet the continent’s growth demands mean Nigeria has both an interest and a responsibility to lead this agenda,” she said.
She added that opportunities in the aviation sector are abundant, with significant needs and substantial potential rewards.
Okonjo-Iweala urged the Federal Government to shift from viewing aviation as a revenue source to treating it as a strategic economic driver.
She said Nigeria must transition to a high-value, export-oriented economy and stop relying on aviation primarily for tax revenue.
According to her, the aviation sector should be treated as critical infrastructure underpinning the African Continental Free Trade Area.
She said: “Air connectivity in Africa is more time-consuming and costly, which constrains trade.
“Very often, to fly between two African countries, passengers have to go through Europe to catch a connecting flight.
“This increases the cost of doing business and represents a structural constraint on growth.
“This partly explains why intra-African trade is only about 16 per cent, while Africa’s share of global trade is about three per cent.”
She noted that in 2025, air cargo accounted for nearly 30 per cent of global trade by value, despite representing less than one per cent by volume.
“That asymmetry shows that aviation does not move all commodities. It transports high-value, time-sensitive goods such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, aerospace components, and small parcels.
“This highlights that the global e-commerce economy depends critically on air transport. When air cargo functions efficiently, it does not merely complement trade—it enables it,” she said.
Okonjo-Iweala added that Nigeria’s aviation sector has grown in recent decades, with more private airlines and new airports and infrastructure.
“The safety record has also improved over the past 19 years, but there is still a long way to go.
“Existing airlines need to upgrade their fleets and scale up operations to improve competitiveness.”
