BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Today’s guest of The Ethiopia Herald, Adefunke Adeyemi, is a Secretary General of the African Civil Aviation Commission. A lawyer and aviation expert, she has just been appointed as the Secretary General of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC/CAFAC), the specialized agency of the African Union on aviation matters.
She was formerly the Regional Director, Advocacy and Strategic Relations, Africa for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), advocating for the overall sustainability and growth of the aviation industry in the region and the intermediary between airlines, the wider aviation community and the general public. She conceptualized and is responsible for an ongoing campaign to promote Africa’s socio-economic prospects through enhanced air connectivity across the continent.
She obtained her Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Commercial Law from University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, read Law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, both with high honors and qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Nigerian Supreme Court in 1999.
She completed her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Nanyang Business School, NTU, Singapore, during which she simultaneously completed a collaborative Advanced Management Program in Aviation, Leadership and Innovation between the Nanyang Business School, Berkeley Haas School of Business, University of California and the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.
Funke is also the founder of a business and legal advisory service, Africa Advocacy (Consulting) Services, a pan-African one-stop shop for Advocacy and Implementation across specific sectors outside of aviation.
Her area of specialties includes; Advocacy, Aviation and Air Transport, Travel and Tourism, Government and Industry Affairs, Strategic Relations, Stakeholder Management, International commercial law, commercial and contracting experience and negotiation skills.
Advocate on behalf of the air transport industry in Africa and the Middle East, which involves engagement and management of all aviation and allied stakeholders within the combined region. She work revolves around promoting the value of aviation at all relevant levels and interfacing with stakeholders to ensure a positive impact on aviation and by extension, the economy. She is responsible for conceptualizing and delivering an ongoing campaign regarding the transformation of Africa’s socio-economic prospects through enhanced connectivity across the continent.
Since joining IATA in 2009, she has been involved in many key industry and leadership initiatives, including being chosen as part of a core group of senior managers tasked with revising the strategic direction of the global aviation industry for the next five years, the re-organization of IATA to better meet member and industry needs, participation as a national delegate during the last four Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to facilitate the global air transport industry position on Environmental issues, and more recently to lead the Women in Leadership initiative of IATA in Africa and the Middle East.
The Ethiopian Herald made a brief stay with her to know more about the single Africa Air Transport Market (SAATM) and its role of strengthening Africa Continental Free Trade Area. Have a nice read!
What does a single African air transport market mean? What is its benefit for fellow Africans?
The AU is specializing in the African Union so as to looking civil aviation industry across 54 countries in Africa. We have an initiative called the Single Africa Air Transport Market that was adopted by the African Head of State in 2015 based on the Yamasukuru decision in 1999 to liberalize the air transport market in Africa.
Air transport has proven to be one of the key catalysts of development and social enablement. Africa is a huge continent in terms of land mass and it is imperative to connect the continent properly for the integration in accordance with AU’s vision and objectives for an integrated, prosperous and united Africa.
The Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) is a flagship project of the African Union Agenda 2063, an initiative of the African Union to create a single unified air transport market in Africa to advance the liberalization of civil aviation in Africa and act as an impetus to the continent’s economic integration agenda. SAATM is expected to ensure aviation plays a major role in connecting Africa, promoting its social, economic and political integration and boosting intra-Africa trade and tourism as a result.
However, the implementation of SAATM has been slow, with only 34 out of 55 African Union (AU) member states signing the YD and its only recently that 17 states ratified it representing 80% of the existing aviation market in Africa.
Furthermore, some countries that signed the YD have not yet fully implemented it, citing concerns over competition and national carriers’ protection.
What is the significance of Yamoussoukro Decision in liberalizing African skies?
As I tried to mention earlier, air connectivity is a number of economic potential and opportunity. The better connected a country is by air, the greater its ability to unlock the economic and social benefits that air transport can deliver. Currently, air connectivity in Africa is focused on international routes, most especially from Europe and the Middle East whilst intra-Africa connectivity is much more limited. Air connectivity has many dimensions; the number of routes, the range of destinations served, the frequency of services and ‘number of seats’ available to and from a country.
Air service liberalization would result in substantial benefits for passengers such as fare savings, more direct routes, increased route frequencies resulting in greater convenience and time savings.
The impact of enhanced connectivity extends beyond those to passengers. The increased air service levels will stimulate employment in the aviation industry to handle passengers and their baggage and to operate, service, and maintain aircraft. Liberalization would also be expected to stimulate trade and tourism between the countries, generating an estimated US$1.3 billion in additional spending. And perhaps most significantly, the increased air services could facilitate many other sectors of the economy by supporting increased trade, attracting new businesses to the region, encouraging investment and enhancing productivity and competitiveness. Industries and activities that would otherwise not exist in a region could be attracted by improved air transport connectivity.
The goal of the YD is to strengthen Safety and Security oversight on the continent and promote a climate of cooperation among African carriers through partnerships, mergers and consortiums. Improved airline brands will be able to compete favorably with stronger States or blocks of States from outside the continent. The full implementation of YD will guarantee the creation of a larger market for African carriers and an improved access to capital. In addition, airlines and governments can optimize existing capacities.
African Open Skies creates much more opportunities and economies of scale. When African airlines are empowered by this realization, economic development on the continent would be accelerated, thousands more jobs would be created and the movement of people within the continent will be enhanced.
As African Airlines are the drivers of SAATM, how can it pass the challenge it faced up and play its role?
This is a very important question. SAATM cannot operate without the operator. On specific issues that are creating challenges for the operator, especially the ability for the operator to generate traffic, we will engage with the States and relevant authorities to show the areas where the States can be more supportive and more enabling to the airlines. It could be just the simple things, depending on the country; we will identify the specific challenges for the airlines and see how to bring them down. It is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It has to be addressed country by country.
The most important thing is the message to the government that we need them to encourage their airlines by creating an enabling environment for them to be able to thrive and support not just SAATM but economic development of the State.
You have to take the message out of aviation; it has to be about the country and what is in it for the people. The country will then be incentivized to say ‘let us try this approach if this is what we stand to gain in the next two-four years.’ We are not saying it is going to happen overnight, but we will give it a try to see which countries will start making this happen.
The priority agenda for the 36th African Union Head of States and Governments summit was the implementation of Africa Continental Free Trade Area. In what ways that SAATM support this effort?
The implementation of the single African air transport market will enable the acceleration of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area as air transport service which will facilitate trading in goods, people and services to move faster and more efficiently across the continent of Africa.
The Single Africa Air Transport Market, the Africa Continental Free Trade Area and the Free Movement Protocol of people and good look out how to connect and integrate Africa better. We fully support the theme of this AU head of state summit of accelerating the African free trade area and we believe our initiative to accelerate the single Africa air transport market can only support and accelerate this issue.
What would be the expected challenge this initiative would face?
The challenges to the implementation of SAATM are complex and varied. The main challenge is making sure to actually implementing it. So it does not require decoration but practical implementation. In this regard, there is a lack of political will and commitment by some African states.
The second important point is proper coordination of partners so as to work together. In short, there is a lack of harmonization of air transport policies and regulations among African states, leading to inconsistencies and difficulties for airlines to operate across borders.
The third point is to harmonize the approach and reduce the fragmentation as well as the tendency of protectionism a nationalistic sentiment rather than continental. There is lack of adequate infrastructure, particularly in secondary airports, making it difficult for airlines to operate profitably. There is also a need for increased investment in human resources development, technology, and innovation to improve efficiency and competitiveness.
So that is really important for the implementation of both the single Africa trade market and the continental free trade area.
Thank you very much.
It is my pleasure.
The Ethiopian Herald March 25/2023
