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NANTA Laments Huge Losses Incurred On Cross Border Trade In Air Tickets

…To Meet FG On IATA Daily Application Of ROE

…Advises Members To Desist From Buying CBT


The National Association of Nigeria Travel Agency (NANTA) has stated that Cross -Border Trade (CBT) in air tickets has caused its members to incur losses to the tune of N25 million, advising them to stop buying these tickets.


This is just as NANTA said it would meet with the Federal Government through the Aviation and Aerospace Development Minister, Mr. Festus Keyamo to clarify if the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is authorised to apply  Rate of Exchange( (ROE) daily.

ROF is designated by the International Air Transport Association(IATA) to convert to local currency to Neutral Unit Currencies(NUCs) into currency of commencement of travel.


The application of ROE, NANTA pointed out many times, ends up significantly higher than parallel market rates, leaves room for speculation, encourages buying Dollars from the parallel market, and purchasing Cross-Border Tickets.

NANTA’s lamentation is contained in a statement signed by its President, Mr. Yinka Folami and made available to Ontimenewsng.com today.

He said that cross-border trade in air tickets has reached an alarming dimension with reports about huge losses incurred by travel customers through the purchases by some of our members.


These losses, he disclosed, go as high as 25million from some of the cases that have been reported to NANTA and are mostly due to the generally non-refundable status of Cross-Border tickets and the poor service that is associated with them.

The cross- border -trade in air tickets, Folarin said, comes with many challenges such as they are highly restricted, changes take longer because of delayed communication due to time Zone differences and that incidences of No-Show are high since communication is delayed and sometimes absent.


He added that no matter how lucrative a NANTA’s member initial purchases of Cross-Border tickets have been, one problem would wipe out all his previous profits, make him heavily indebted to the customer, and send him to the police/law enforcement as recent reports have shown.


He listed the effects of Cross-Border Trading to include:

* Capital Flight (further weakening the Economy)

* Consumer Effect: poor service and heavy financial loss to customers

* Local Asset Devaluation and threat to all Local Industry Players (Airlines, GDS Companies, Travel Agencies (Big & Small) will all lose). Airlines and GDS companies have confirmed heavy losses during our stakeholder visits

* Eventual heavy loss of Jobs


On IATA’s role in the challenging issue, the NANTA President said, “Contrary to what many think, IATA does not fix ROE, we have studied closely and can confirm that all the figures that IATA publish are from the FMDQ dashboard of the I&E FX Window, with a 2-day lag. However, this practice by IATA; applying ROE daily, which many times end up being significantly higher than parallel market rates, leaves room for speculation, encourages buying USD from the parallel market, and purchasing Cross-Border Tickets.

“All of these put further pressure on the Naira, with harmful consequences on our market. This issue of ROE application by IATA is on the agenda of our discussions with the government. We need to clarify if IATA is authorized to apply ROE daily, with a 2-day lag. Pending that, it is instructive for IATA to note that the market is hurting,” he said.


On the role of global merchants, the NANTA boss, posited that while the association is not against the entry of global players into the Nigeria market, they have the responsibility to play fair and not to undermine the market.


The Executive Council of NANTA, he declared frowns against the merchandise of global fares that are not available in Nigeria’s market, adding that this results in declining local sales and deficit to all local players.


According to him, “We have promised the government that we would fish out some of these global merchants and report them. The Nigeria Market has lost about 40 per cent share and this is not good for our BSP reporting. We advise them to stop eroding the Nigeria Market.”


He advised members to be patient as NANTA is working behind the scene and assiduously to ensure that these issues are resolved, adding that signs to the successful resolution are already there .

“We assure you that we are working hard, behind the scenes, to stabilise this market; airlines, GDS companies, and the government have received our message on fair play very well. We are already seeing signs of relative stability, and we are confident that we will get there.


Pending that, we strongly advise that NANTA members desist from buying Cross-Border tickets. We have received troubling official reports about members that have been embarrassingly dragged to the police and law-enforcement, and this is troubling to leadership. Let us keep together, keep our focus, and keep our belief that we are strong enough in NANTA to address the issues that challenge our businesses,” he further assured.


On the journey so far since he assumed office two months ago, the NANTA President said that the association had met with airlines, GDS companies, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA), and the  Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) and  that it is scheduled to meet with the Federal Government through the Aviation Minister and Aerospace Development .

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