Nigeria releases $265m for outstanding airline ticket sales

Nigeria’s Central Bank released $265 million to airlines to settle outstanding ticket sales, it said Friday. Airlines have said they have millions trapped in Africa’s most populous nation due to an inability to access the foreign exchange repatriate funds. Dubai’s Emirates has said it will suspend its service to Nigeria from next month, and other carriers have reportedly cut back their capacity to the country due the difficulties in repatriating funds. Nigeria, which gets 90% of its foreign exchange from oil, has struggled with a lack of foreign currency due in part to rampant pipeline theft that has cut oil exports by nearly half a million barrels per day to around 1.4m barrels per day. The IATA said that by July Nigeria had blocked airlines from repatriating some $464m in revenue. <br/>