Against the backdrop of the newly signed Lomé Ministerial Declaration aimed at hacking down regional air travel charges, Nigeria has drawn a firm line regarding how continental infrastructure should be financed.
Speaking on Day Two of the First African Air Transport Convention & Expo 2026 in Lomé, Olubunmi Kuku, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), rejected calls for the establishment of new, standalone aviation financing institutions.
Instead, she urged global lenders to embed specialised industry desks within existing frameworks to quickly build a bankable pipeline of regional projects.
Participating in a high-level panel titled “Strategic Direction on Aviation Financing and Infrastructure Development,” Kuku argued that capital availability is no longer the primary bottleneck choking African aviation. Rather, the continent is facing a severe deficit in structural project preparation, market-risk management, and cross-border continuity.
“I know I’ve heard quite a lot of talk from different people around setting up different sort of financing institutions. I strongly do not support that,” Kuku stated candidly during the session. “I’d rather that the existing financing institutions set up specialised desks to understand the aviation environment.”
