NBS hosts top African Civil Aviation Officials

From left, Assoc Prof Chung Lai Hong, Deputy Dean Sharon Ng, Mr Amit Jain, Ms Adefunke Adeyemi and Ms Andile Mtetwa-Amaeshi

Centre Director Amit Jain joined Deputy Dean Sharon Ng, Deputy Director Ong Ann Huey of NBS Alumni Affairs in hosting two of the most senior civil aviation officials at the Nanyang Business School this month (21 February). Adefunke Adeyemi, Secretary General of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) and Andile Mtetwa-Amaeshi, Director General of Civil Aviation and CEO of Eswatini Airports visited the University at the invitation of the NBS Alumni Affairs. Ms Adeyemi, who grew up in Nigeria obtained her MBA degree in 2014 from NBS. The two sides had wide-ranging discussion on the possibility of stitching customised executive programmes for African civil aviation officials. The AFCAC is a specialised agency of the African Union (AU) that is trying to liberalise civil aviation and implement the Single African Aviation Market (SAATM) agreement.

 Africa has 925 airports out of which 122 are international. The African continental air transport network includes a total of 14,762 air routes. Yet, air accounts for only 0.9% of intra-Africa freight transport and intra-African tourism has, until recently, been stymied by high airfare costs and visa regimes. The implementation of SAATM could double airfreight from 2.3 to 4.5 million tonnes and boost intra-African trade and tourism. Amit Jain proposed to conduct a commissioned study on the learnings and data-points from South-East Asia as empirical evidence of the knock-on socio-economic benefit that liberal regional air transport can deliver for Africa.