Written by Chinedu Eze | From This Day via AllAfrica

Nigerian has become the fastest growing aviation business in Africa with more new and pre-owned aircraft delivery than South Africa as at 2013.

This was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer of EAN Aviation, Segun Demuren, who organised the Nigeria Business Aviation Conference 2014 recently in Lagos. He noted that Nigeria’s private jet fleet is larger than that of commercial aircraft.

“Nigeria is now Africa’s fastest growing aviation business with more new and pre-owned aircraft delivered to Nigeria, than South Africa in the last year. The country’s private jet fleet is larger than the commercial aircraft fleet. Growth has been driven predominantly by the oil and gas industry however other sectors including finance, manufacturing, telecoms and agriculture are all contributing to a market which is set to grow by 20 per cent this year,” Demuren said.

In spite o this growth, Demuren highlighted challenges faced in the industry which include the fact that any aircraft put on a 5N (Nigerian) registry will lose asset value by as much as 25 per cent, incur higher insurance premiums, up to 35 per cent; even higher in some cases because of the operating environment.

He said maintenance and service support still remains a challenge and while the fleet continues to grow, there are no accurate figures for the amount of jets operating in Nigeria. Educated guesses say between 100 and 150, with an anticipated 350 set to be in operation by 2016.

Read more at AllAfrica