Emirates will resume flights to Nigeria in October after a nearly two-year suspension, during which the airline was in discussions with government authorities to repatriate its outstanding ticket sales revenue that was withheld in the country.
The Dubai-based airline will offer a daily service to Lagos from October 1 using a Boeing 777-300ER and tickets are now available for booking, it said in a statement on Thursday. It suspended flights to the city on October 29, 2022.
"We thank the Nigerian government for their partnership and support in re-establishing this route," said Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ deputy president and chief commercial officer.
"The Lagos-Dubai service has traditionally been popular with customers in Nigeria and we hope to reconnect leisure and business travellers to Dubai and onwards to our network of over 140 destinations."
The biggest foreign airline flying in and out of Nigeria this month is Ethiopian Airlines, with 29,085 seats, followed by Qatar Airways with 27,099 and British Airways with 15,021, according to aviation data provider Cirium.
Emirates in 2022 operated 438 flights to Nigeria before suspending them in October of that year, Cirium said.
In March 2023, Emirates said it was owed a “substantial” amount in ticket revenue by Nigerian authorities, with little progress made in repatriating the blocked payments from Africa's most populous nation. It declined to reveal the amount withheld.
Emirates said at the time it was ready to work with the Nigerian government and the central bank to find a solution to unlock the blocked funds and agree on "firm measures" to prevent future repatriation accumulation.
Billions in blocked payments globally
As of January, the amount of airlines' blocked payments in Africa and the Middle East stood at $1.8 billion, while globally the figure stood at $2.27 billion, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata).
This leads to depriving the aviation industry of much-needed cash, risking reduced air connectivity and damaging investors' perceptions of these economies, Iata said in June.
Airlines cannot continue to offer services in markets where they are unable to repatriate revenue arising from their commercial activities in these areas, the global airline lobby group said.
Nigeria ranked as the top country worldwide for withholding airlines' revenue, according to Iata data.
Nigeria's airline repatriation issues began in March 2020, when demand for foreign currency in the country outpaced supply and its banks were not able to service currency repatriations.
Nearly 20 routes in Africa
With the resumption of operations to Nigeria, Emirates has 19 routes to Africa, with 157 weekly flights from Dubai. It also offers connections to 130 regional points in Africa through its codeshare and interline partnerships with South African Airways, Airlink, Royal Air Maroc and Tunis Air, among others.
With the resumption of daily passenger flights, the airline’s cargo arm, Emirates SkyCargo, will offer more than 300 tonnes of belly-hold cargo capacity, in and out of Lagos every week.
Emirates SkyCargo will support Nigerian businesses by exporting their goods via its hub in Dubai, into key markets such as the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Bahrain, with key commodities such as Kola Nuts, food and drink, and urgent courier material, the airline said.
The Emirates Boeing 777-300ER serving Lagos will operate with eight first-class suites, 42 business-class seats and 304 seats in economy.
Tributes from the UAE's personal finance community
• Sebastien Aguilar, who heads SimplyFI.org, a non-profit community where people learn to invest Bogleheads’ style
“It is thanks to Jack Bogle’s work that this community exists and thanks to his work that many investors now get the full benefits of long term, buy and hold stock market investing.
Compared to the industry, investing using the common sense approach of a Boglehead saves a lot in costs and guarantees higher returns than the average actively managed fund over the long term.
From a personal perspective, learning how to invest using Bogle’s approach was a turning point in my life. I quickly realised there was no point chasing returns and paying expensive advisers or platforms. Once money is taken care off, you can work on what truly matters, such as family, relationships or other projects. I owe Jack Bogle for that.”
• Sam Instone, director of financial advisory firm AES International
"Thought to have saved investors over a trillion dollars, Jack Bogle’s ideas truly changed the way the world invests. Shaped by his own personal experiences, his philosophy and basic rules for investors challenged the status quo of a self-interested global industry and eventually prevailed. Loathed by many big companies and commission-driven salespeople, he has transformed the way well-informed investors and professional advisers make decisions."
• Demos Kyprianou, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"Jack Bogle for me was a rebel, a revolutionary who changed the industry and gave the little guy like me, a chance. He was also a mentor who inspired me to take the leap and take control of my own finances."
• Steve Cronin, founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com
"Obsessed with reducing fees, Jack Bogle structured Vanguard to be owned by its clients – that way the priority would be fee minimisation for clients rather than profit maximisation for the company.
His real gift to us has been the ability to invest in the stock market (buy and hold for the long term) rather than be forced to speculate (try to make profits in the shorter term) or even worse have others speculate on our behalf.
Bogle has given countless investors the ability to get on with their life while growing their wealth in the background as fast as possible. The Financial Independence movement would barely exist without this."
• Zach Holz, who blogs about financial independence at The Happiest Teacher
"Jack Bogle was one of the greatest forces for wealth democratisation the world has ever seen. He allowed people a way to be free from the parasitical "financial advisers" whose only real concern are the fat fees they get from selling you over-complicated "products" that have caused millions of people all around the world real harm.”
• Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.org
"In an industry that’s synonymous with greed, Jack Bogle was a lone wolf, swimming against the tide. When others were incentivised to enrich themselves, he stood by the ‘fiduciary’ standard – something that is badly needed in the financial industry of the UAE."
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Gothia Cup 2025
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Europa League semi-final, second leg
Atletico Madrid (1) v Arsenal (1)
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When: Thursday, May 3
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50-man Royal Rumble
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
