The Federal Executive Council, FEC, has approved a loan of approximately $618 million from a consortium of financiers to acquire six Italian-made M-346 attack jets and ammunition for the Nigerian Air Force.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced this on Wednesday after the Federal Executive council meeting.

The Air Force previously stated that the first three jets are expected to arrive by early 2025, while the remaining deliveries will run through mid-2026.

 

Idris, who stood in for the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, said, “From the Honorable Minister of Finance, who is away on official duty in the US. I’m going to let you know what those FEC approvals are.

“The first one is that there have been approvals for some contracts, about seven of them for the Nigerian custom service. The next one is that there’s an approval for an agreement for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and prevention of tax evasion and avoidance between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.

“The third one is an approval to obtain a credit facility in a sum of 443,330,781.49 euros and another 141 million US dollars from a group of financiers for the procurement of six units of M346 fighter aircraft and ammunition for the Nigerian Air Force.

“And the last one from the Federal Ministry of Finance is the approval for signing of an agreement for the elimination of double taxation with respect to taxes on income and the prevention of tax evasion and avoidance between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Botswana.”

Last week, Nigeria’s Air Force announced the acquisition of 24 Italian-made M-346 attack jets and ten AW-109 Trekker helicopters as part of its fleet renewal strategy.

Air Force spokesperson, Olusola Akinboyewa, had stated that a delegation, led by Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, met in Rome with executives from Leonardo S.P.A. the manufacturer.

The company confirmed that the first three M-346 jets are expected to arrive by early 2025, with the remaining deliveries continuing through mid-2026.

The development is expected to provide more firepower and aerial advantage for troops in the ongoing fight against insurgents in the country.

Nigeria first initiated talks with the Italian firm in early 2024 when Claudio Sabatino, Vice President of Leonardo, met with Nigeria’s air force chief, Hasan Abubakar, in Abuja.

The Federal Government has significantly increased spending on defence and security in recent years to address various security threats nationwide.

About N3.3 trillion was allocated to the defence sector for the 2024 fiscal year.

Though there have been successes, recent developments have shown that Boko Haram and other armed groups persist in the Northeast and other parts of the country.

At the press briefing, it was also revealed that the FEC had approved the establishment of the Creative Economy Fund to ensure the deepening of the sector.

Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, told State House Correspondents that the Council approved the establishment of the Creative Economy Fund.

“FEC gave approval for the creation of a Creative Economy Development Fund. This is a special purpose vehicle that will allow members within the creative economy to have access to funding and use their IP as collateral in terms of monetisation. We identified very early on that the very basic structures in order for us to really tap into the potential of the creative economy was missing.

“So, we got to work in putting up those structures. IP policy is one of those very basic structures that was missing. We are working together with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and with the Ministry of Justice to ensure that we deliver IP policy, hopefully within maximum, at the very last phase, within the next two weeks.

“This is a special purpose vehicle that will give them funding that will be able to allow us to leverage funding that we’re getting. We already have commitment, for example, from Afreximbank that has committed to giving us $200m and a number of other sources.

“So, this is a special purpose vehicle that will allow us to give this funding to members within the community. And hopefully, we’ll be able to really tap into the potential and reach our targets of economic expansion, creative expansion, cultural expansion of course job creation, specifically for younger demographic,” the minister added.