The central bank in Nigeria has been instructed by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to boost the amount of foreign currency allocated to Dubai’s Emirates after the airline halted operations to and from Nigeria due to a lack of available funds.
Due to severe dollar shortages, many Nigerians and businesses are forced to swap money on the black market, where the value of the naira has been steadily declining. Due to a shortage of local currency in the most populous country in Africa, the United Arab Emirates airline had to cancel two of its flights to Nigeria last year.
Buhari sought the suspension of Emirates’ flights to Nigeria and the easing of a “blanket” visa ban imposed by the UAE on citizens of Nigeria in a phone call with Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
To settle outstanding ticket sales, the central bank granted $265 million to the airlines in August 2022. As a result, Emirates restarted its flights to Nigeria in September before suspending them at the end of October due to the same problem with frozen money.