Founder of the Nigeria Entrepreneurship Summit & Honors Foundation (NESH), Emeka Ugwu-Oju, has said Nigeria’s aviation sector must urgently shift from a survival mindset to full transformation if it is to become efficient, safe and globally competitive.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE News on Friday after convening a high-level aviation roundtable in Abuja themed “CEO’s Outlook for the Nigerian Aviation Sector in 2026”, Ugwu-Oju said the industry had spent too long focused on merely staying afloat rather than reforming its structure, governance and service delivery.
“I think the main thing that came out of it was from the chairman’s opening remarks, which was Wale Babalakin, even though he was represented, where he said the industry should now focus not just on surviving but on transformation,” Ugwu-Oju said. “How do you transform the aviation sector to be what it should be? Because up to now, we have asked, how do we survive, how do we survive?”
He explained that the roundtable was designed to bring together chief executives from both the public and private sectors to assess the past year and set a clear agenda for the future.
“The concept of this is to bring CEOs of the public and the private sectors to share their thoughts on how the past year had been and then how this year should be, so that when we come here the following year, we’ll look at the next CEO’s outlook – did we get it right, did we get it wrong?” he said.
On the contentious issue of high airfares, Ugwu-Oju acknowledged public frustration but said pricing remained a complex function of costs, seasonality and market forces.
“I think the issue of airfare is something that is in the minds of every Nigerian,” he said. “Somebody who came from Lagos to Abuja for the event said his ticket was about ₦95,000. So there’s the issue of seasonality which needs to be addressed.”
He noted that airfare spikes during peak periods such as Christmas were often linked to operational realities, especially on eastern routes.
“There was some justification for that because especially for the eastern area, they say that what you’re really paying for is a return ticket, not a one-way ticket, because they fly in with full load and come back almost empty,” he said.
Nevertheless, Ugwu-Oju said airlines could not price themselves out of the market.
“At the end of the day, pricing is a function of cost and also market forces,” he said. “If passengers can’t afford the ticket, the airline, the plane will be empty. So you can’t just put in a price that is unaffordable.”
He added that affordability must not come at the expense of safety or airline sustainability.
“The issue is how do you make it affordable without compromising safety and also for the airline to survive,” he said.
Ugwu-Oju stressed that NESH’s role was not regulatory but advocatory, providing a platform for dialogue and pushing outcomes to relevant stakeholders.
“I think for NESH, our main purpose is to provide a platform for dialogue, and at the end of the day, we can run with the outcomes,” he said. “If we understand the challenges in the aviation sector, we can then say, government, you need to do this; private sector, you need to do that.”
He described the aviation roundtable as NESH’s first in the sector.
“This is our inaugural aviation roundtable, so it’s our first,” he said, adding that similar engagements were planned for other sectors, including healthcare.
A major concern raised at the roundtable, according to Ugwu-Oju, was weak corporate governance among some Nigerian airlines, which he linked to frequent airline failures.
“People say, why do some Nigerian airlines collapse before you say Jack Robinson? And it has been an issue of corporate governance,” he said. “We have some companies where you have the founder, the wife, the daughter, the brother all sitting on the board.”
He warned that focusing on ticket revenue without accounting for operational costs often masked losses.
“People see a lot of inflows when tickets are sold without looking at what is behind that inflow,” he said. “By the time you net out the cost, you could be running at a loss. But when there is no proper corporate governance, you can spend the money as if it is an incumbent fund.”
On regulation and passenger protection, Ugwu-Oju disclosed that the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) had outlined stricter enforcement measures for 2026.
“The Director of Operations of NCAA spoke about what they intend to do in 2026, especially with regards to how some passengers are treated,” he said. “Where a flight is cancelled, airlines should not just leave people stranded without making provision for them.”
He said airlines would be compelled to take responsibility for passenger welfare.
“If it requires serving food while passengers are waiting, that should be done as a responsibility, not as a favour,” Ugwu-Oju said. “If it requires putting them in a hotel for the night to catch the flight the next day, that will be done.”
On aviation policy reforms, he acknowledged that government leadership was critical, noting that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development was unable to deliver the planned address at the event.
“In terms of policies, that is the responsibility of government,” he said. “There was some mix-up and the minister didn’t make it, although I met him after the event.”
Ugwu-Oju said further engagement with the minister was planned.
“Soon, we’ll have what you might call a fireside chat with the Minister of Aviation, where these issues of policies will be better addressed,” he added.
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