Nigeria, US sign air transport agreement

The Federal Government has approved the ratification of air transport agreement between Nigeria and the United States of America.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this on Wednesday while briefing State House reporters after the 10th virtual Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

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Mohammed said the air transport bilateral agreement was to strengthen economic, social and cultural ties between the two countries.

He said: “You’d recall that both United States and Nigeria are parties to the Chicago Convention on the 7th of December, 1994. Article 6 of the convention actually urges parties to sign air services agreement with member states to improve social, political and economic ties.

“The US has ratified its own and Mr President and council graciously accepted today to also ratify this agreement. So, today, Mr President signed valid agreement of  air transport service between Nigeria and the US with the attendant benefits for both countries, especially as Nigeria is working towards having its own full national airline.

“So, we’ll now take advantage of this air transport bilateral agreement to strengthen economic, social and cultural ties between the two countries.”

The Minister of Environment, Mohammed Mahmoud, said the council approved a revised new National Forest Policy to replace the old one formulated in 2006.

He said the government had suspended export of forest products because there was no “enough control under the old policy”.

Mahmoud said despite the fact that the tree planting campaign had started “unofficially” with the planting of millions of trees, Buhari would be urged to “symbolically flag off” national tree planting this year.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo, said the council ratified the Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, signed in 2016 between Nigeria and Singapore on the one hand, and Nigeria and the Kingdom of Morocco on the other hand.