The Federal Government says Ethiopian Airlines, with forty-nine percent share-holding, will be its major partner for the Nigeria Air project.
The Minister of Aviation, Mister Hadi Sirika, disclosed this during a press briefing in Abuja where he says the national carrier is 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:
a. Due Diligence Phase (completed for all consortium partners on 15 Sep. 2022)
b. Contract Negotiation between the Preferred Bidder and FGN
c. Development of the Full Business Case (FBC)
d. Issuance of Compliance Certificate for the FBC by ICRC
e. Approval of FBC by FEC.
“We aim to finish this PPP process by mid-Nov. 2022,” he said.
Mister 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.