Trillions lost to over two decades illegal private jet operations – Task Force report

A preliminary report has suggested that activities of illegal private jet operators who engage in multi-faceted activities have bled the coffers of the federal government to the tune of trillions of naira in revenues over a period spanning over two decades of illegal operations without the appropriate authority swooping on them.

The Ministerial Taskforce on Illegal Air Charter Operations and Related Matters the Federal Government set up recently disclosed that it uncovered mind-blowing revelations on how private jet operators spuriously shortchange government without paying all the necessary levies and taxes on such operations.

The report, released at the weekend by the committee among others revealed that most foreign registered aircraft acquired by wealthy Nigerians as their private jets are used for such illegal charter operations.

The secretary of the Task force, Mr. Roland Iyayi explained that such foreign-registered aircraft that are not under the purview of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority by virtue of the foreign registry.

“In totality, what we’ve been able to deduce is that the federal government has incurred huge losses in terms of revenues, particularly in the last two decades”

“So, in the last couple of weeks, four weeks, what we have been able to establish clearly are the following. In 2005, the available records indicate that there were 44 private business jets in the country. Two decades on, in 2024, that number has risen to 157. That’s an increase of 357% over two decades”.