Int. airlines promised to receive some of their funds trapped in Nigeria

The Central Bank of Nigeria said (26 August) it has made US$ 265 million available for release to international airlines shortly after the Dubai-based Emirates airline announced that it has put a hold on flight operations in and out of Nigeria due to its inability to repatriate funds from the West African country.
The money appears to have been raised from the bank’s foreign exchange reserves and an auction to importers. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which recently complained that airlines have $464 million in revenues that they could not repatriate out of Nigeria, welcomed the gesture. “Airlines can’t be expected to fly if they can’t realize revenue from ticket sales. Loss of connectivity harms the economy, hurts investor confidence, impacts jobs and people’s lives,” the IATA warned in a short Twitter thread. There is an implied belief that the rest of the withheld funds will be released.
As Nigeria’s dollar scarcity persists, the threat of other airlines following the Emirate’s lead may not go away despite the central bank’s intervention. For example, as part of a “temporary adjustment in operations,” British Airways has reportedly told its sales agents in Nigeria to suspend new bookings. At commercial banks in Lagos and Abuja, customers are facing restrictions on how many dollars they can withdraw in cash from personal accounts over the counter. Analysts cite Nigeria’s insufficient oil revenues due to production shortages linked to theft along pipelines as one of the immediate causes for the dollar scarcity.