PM says eyes on Nigeria’s Air Peace

By Antoinette Connell

in The Bahamas

antoinetteconnell@nationnews.com

Prime Minister Mia Mottley confirmed that Government met over the Nigerian carrier Air Peace as recently as last Wednesday.

Mottley said she did not like making predictions or promises but indicated discussions were going well and it was now over to the regulatory authorities on the matter of allowing the airline into Barbados.

“Once that’s done, we’ll get reports and then at the governmental levels, it is for us to determine how we promote and get the market going because, as you would know, anything you want to sell, you’ve got to market first . . . . People must know about it and people must be able to afford it and people must feel that there’s value in it,” Mottley told reporters Friday just before departing Nassau, on the final day of the Afreximbank 31st Annual Conference and the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum at the Baha Mar Centre in The Bahamas.

It was the first time the Pan African development financial institution had hosted its annual conference in the Caribbean, and Mottley said after years of trying, because of Afreximbank it was the first time substantive activity in trading and investment with Africa was becoming possible.

“My own officials met with Air Peace day before and with our tourism people to be able to see how we could have that linkage move,” Mottley said.

She added more direct marketing was required on both sides, adding if Lagos was a hub that area would corral people in West and East Africa to the Caribbean and, similarly, if travellers come to Barbados, they could move on to the region.

“Air Peace has made an investment with Antigua in LIAT 2020,” Mottley said.

Air Peace flies to 20 major cities within Nigeria and connects through its regional service to Accra, Banjul, Dakar, Douala Freetown and Monrovia while expanding its network with international routes that include Johannesburg and Mumbai.

There is already a strong connectivity with the African continent, Mottley stated, and she based that on the number of Barbadians who were watching Nollywood movies before they knew about Afreximbank.

Strong connection

“So there’s already a strong connection and connectivity and when people get to realise, wait, they eat the same food as we, they like the same pepper that we like, all those things come to help create [that connection] . . . . That’s why I made the point about the cruise tourism, because I really feel that that commonality of culture can drive an extraordinary experience on the cruise ships for our people,” Mottley said.

Similarly, with respect to the movement of goods, Mottley said a way must be found so goods from the Caribbean did not have to go north, then come back south, but rather each country would be a hub for the other.

She explained that Barbados was the lead country for the CARICOM Single Market & Economy and Africa had the continental free trade area as a single market it was trying to establish, pointing out there were opportunities.

Mottley noted the just concluded Afreximbank Annual Meetings 2024, with 4 000 registered Africans all at once in the Caribbean, as evidence of growth between the continents as the first event in the Caribbean two years ago had around 1 200 to 1 500 Africans.

When asked about the message the Africa and Caribbean union was sending to the Goliaths of world power, Mottley said she was more concerned with the message being sent to ordinary people.

“I want it sent to ordinary people in the Caribbean, ordinary people in Africa because while we are seeing the movement at the institutional level and we are seeing it grow at the level of businessmen and finances, I want to see it at the level of ordinary people. That is where the issue of access to transport comes in and, the truth is, we are going to have to make the market in some instances because there are still corporate vehicles. I think we are much closer to seeing that happen. There are charters being discussed,” she said.

Antoinette Connell is in The Bahamas, sponsored by the Afreximbank, covering the bank’s Annual Meetings and the AfriCaribbean Trade and Investment Forum.

Please see also Pages 18A&19A.