The Federal Government has said there was no timeline yet for the lifting of the visa and flights bans on Nigeria by the United Arabs Emirates.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, made this known when he spoke on Thursday.
Keyamo, who spoke in Abuja, said the terms of agreements were being finalised.
He also addressed the issue of the withheld airlines fund by Nigeria and what is being done to tackle it.
He said: “So, we are beginning to work out all the tiny details.
“I have met with Emirates before I left UAE, and we are working out the details.
“We cannot say the time frame.
“Kicking off an airline operation again on a route does not mean you will go and grab one empty plane sitting in a place.
“There is no idle plane sitting anywhere.
“They have to reschedule their flights and restart their routes again.
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“All kinds of permission will be taken from local authorities and of course, I made the point in speaking with them and I made it clear that they will have to give our airlines reciprocal rights under our Bilateral Air Service Agreements.
“That is the point I insisted on.
“And they did say that any spot we need, they will give us as much as we give them those spots within Nigeria.”
On foreign airlines blocked funds, Keyamo said: “Mr. President is very concerned about that.
“It is one of the issues we went to discuss in the UAE.
“I spoke with the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and he has indicated that within the next few weeks, the Central Bank of Nigeria will be very clear as to the programme within which these issues will be addressed.
“They will be paid off.
“These are not loans.
“They are trapped funds.
“They are funds that are there.
“It is only the issue of liquidity that is our problem.
“The issues of liquidity are being addressed as I speak right now.
“It is something that the President is very concerned about.
“And that issue, I said that we have addressed it in the UAE and very soon, you will hear from the financial sector.”
