THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Nigeria has announced that Ethiopian Airlines would be its major partner, with forty-nine percent share-holding, for the Nigeria Air project.
The country’s Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja where he revealed that the national carrier was well on its way to being launched with three Boeing 737-800 that will shuttle between Abuja and Lagos.
“On 10th June 2022, the Ministry received on time one closed bid by the Ethiopian Airline Consortium. A few others attempted to submit but unfortunately could not meet the deadline. Since we did not collect the bids, we are not in a position to say who they are,” he said on Thursday.
“The evaluation Team, 11 Experts from ICRC, FMFB&NP, FMA, and the TA met on the 20/21st of July 2022 and again on 1st August 2022.
“The Ethiopian Airline Consortium bid was formally opened in the presence of a representation of Ethiopian Airlines, checking that all envelopes were closed and sealed at that point, 11 am on 20th July, starting with the Technical Bid. The Financial Bid was opened, again under the observation of the Ethiopian representative, on 21st July 2022.
“All 10 forms, as required by the RFP, were evaluated by the team. Unanimously, the assessment team cleared the Technical Bid, which had a total score of 89% out of 100.
“In a further meeting on 1st August 2022, the team assessed the Financial Bid further and graded it with a score of 15% out of 20.
“The Ethiopian Airline Consortium got a combined score (Technical and Financial Bid) of 86.7%.”
He added that the Ethiopian Airline Consortium was declared the Preferred Bidder and the evaluation Team will proceed with the processes required for the operation of the joint venture.
“We aim to finish this PPP process by mid-Nov. 2022,” he said.
Sirika, while responding to questions about the involvement of local airlines in the project, denied shutting out local airlines from participating in the bid process.
Ethiopian Airlines, which is wholly owned by the government of Ethiopia, also owns 45% of Zambia Airways, 49% of Guinea Airways, 100% of Ethiopia-Mozambique Airlines, 49% of Chad Airlines, 49% of Air Malawi and 40% of Asky Airlines from Togo.
