Ethiopian Selected Preferred Bidder for Nigeria Air, Owns 49% of Nat’l Carrier

Addis Ababa September 24/2022/ENA/ Ethiopian Airlines (ET) consortium has been selected as the preferred bidder for Nigeria Air, owning 49 percent of the national carrier, according to the Nigerian newspaper “The Cable”.

Aviation Minister Hadi Sirika said during a media briefing on Friday in Abuja that ET scored 89 percent out of 100 in the technical bidding process and 15 out of 20 as regards financial bids.

“After a careful, detailed and ICRC governed selection process, Ethiopian Airlines (ET) Consortium has been selected as the preferred bidder, offering an owner consortium of 3 Nigerian investors.

“The Nigerian investors are MRS, SAHCO and the Nigerian Sovereign Fund (46%), FGN owning 5% and ET 49%. The consortium has been subject to a due diligence process.

“The contract will be negotiated between consortium and FGN, leading to a full business case (FBC) which will be expected to be approved by the federal executive council (FEC). We expect this process to take 6-8 weeks,” the paper quoted the minister.

The aviation minister said the national carrier would launch with three Boeing 737-800s in a configuration very suitable for the Nigerian market.