DECEMBER 11, 2020

Delta Air Line is partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep international customers informed of potential COVID-19 exposure through contact tracing. Along with the airline’s nine global airline partners, Delta said it is working with government agencies, health officials and aviation authorities to offer safer travel at every point in your journey.

Beginning December 15, Delta announced it would become the first US airline to ask customers traveling to the US from an international location to voluntarily provide five pieces of data to aid contact tracing and public health follow-up efforts. These information include: Full names, E-mail address, Address in the US, primary phone and secondary phone “Independent studies have shown that the many layers of protection Delta has already put in place are effectively minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission, and contact tracing adds one more important layer to our efforts to ensure safety throughout travel,” said Delta’s Chief Customer Experience Officer, Bill Lentsch.

“We want customers to feel safe when they return to travel, and this voluntary program is another way we can provide additional reassurance to customers and employees alike,” he added. Delta said customers and those in their itinerary can voluntarily participate in its contact-tracing program if they are flying on any Delta-operated flight and a foreign national and/or a US passport holder traveling to the United States as their final destination

DECEMBER 11, 2020

By Kelvin Osa Okunbor

 

 

European carrier, Lufhansa German Airlines yesterday said it was awaiting clearance from the Federal Government to resume flight operations into Port Harcourt International Airport and described the country as one of its key markets in Africa.

Its General Manager Nigeria & Equatorial Guinea Lufthansa Group Airlines, Adenike Macaulay who spoke yesterday, said the carrier was excited to return to the Lagos / Abuja / Frankfurt route eight months after it suspended flights following travel restrictions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said, besides the pandemic and the accompanying restriction, it also awaited approval from the Federal Government to lift suspension on its operations due to bilateral issues.

Macaulay said the carrier has now resumed five weekly departures from Lagos to Frankfurt with three weekly departures from Abuja to connect passengers into its main hub.

She said the new schedule of flights allows all passengers from Nigeria to get the full choice of connecting flights to European, American and Asian destinations from the same terminal 1.

“Lufthansa always was and will stay dedicated to Nigeria, one of our key markets in Africa. As we have received the final permission to reopen our flight operations, we are happy to be the first airline to reconnect Nigeria directly to the centre of Europe and onwards to all other continents.

“We offer a considerable number of flights to the US and Canada, allowing our Nigerian guests to have family members and friends again at reach throughout the world. Health and safety continues to be our top priority and we are committed to maintain a strict adherence to hygiene regulations for all our flights,” she said.

DECEMBER 12, 2020

Nigerians are gradually being reintroduced to rail transport following the determination of the Federal Government to rebuild the country’s rail network and even construct new ones. Although past administrations since the restoration of democracy had attempted to revive Nigeria’s railways, whose decline symbolised the rot in the country’s infrastructure, President Muhammadu Buhari has set his administration apart from its predecessors with its achievements in the sector so far. It made railway modernisation its cardinal project and has not relented ever since. In 2018 the President projected that by the end of 2021, the country would have a standard gauge railway across the main North-South trading route.

“We understand that this interconnectivity will improve the country’s economic competitiveness as targeted under the Economic Recovery and Growth. So for starters, I have directed that every port must have the complement of rail infrastructure and our projection is that by the end of 2021, we will have standard gauge railway across the main North-South trading route,” he said.

Given the huge decline in the country’s foreign exchange earnings as a result of the crash in crude oil price since the administration assumed office, it needed to borrow to execute the rail projects. In 2017, it secured a $6.1 billion loan from China Exim Bank for the construction of Calabar-Port Harcourt, Lagos-Ibadan, Lagos-Kano rail, and Lagos to Kaduna railway and another $1.5 billion counterpart funding for the Lagos-Ibadan project. The administration has taken other loans to fund the projects, which form part of the N31.08 trillion-sovereign-debt burden that is currently weighing heavily on the country’s fiscal position.

Nevertheless, Nigerians today enjoy ‘world-class’ train services on the Abuja-Kaduna route and Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan route. But they consider the fares too exorbitant and beyond the reach of the masses.

Last Monday, the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) announced the commencement of train service operations on the Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan standard gauge rail. But it had only one passenger on board.   The newly introduced service, according to the corporation, provides fully air-conditioned train services in the Economy, Business and First Class categories. However, the high fares announced by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, apparently scared potential passengers away hence the low patronage that greeted its take off. Amaechi had last week announced a price regime of N3, 000 for the Economy, N5, 000 for the Business and N6,000 for First Class.

Independent investigation by The Guardian, however, showed that the fare list for the standard gauge railway from Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan zone 1-2 are as follows: 24-seater coaches (N6, 000), 56-seater coaches (N5, 000), 68-seater coaches (N3, 500), and 88-seater coaches (N2, 500). For Lagos-Abeokuta ticket, Zone 1 only, the fares are a 24-seater coach (N4, 500), 56-seater coach (N3, 500), 68-seater coach (N3, 000), and 88-seater coach (N2, 000).

Passengers of zone 11 of the standard gauge railway from Abeokuta to Ibadan are charged between N2, 000 and N600. On the Abuja-Kaduna route, findings also showed that the NRC has stopped adhering to the COVID-19 protocol of social distancing in the train service, but has maintained the fare of N3, 000 for Economy coaches, N5, 000 for Business Class coaches and N6, 000 for the First Class which it introduced when the rule was being observed.

The NRC had in July 2020 raised the fares on the route from N1, 300 and N2, 500 to the current fares citing the need to adhere to COVID-19 protocols and maintain social distancing in the seating arrangement in the coaches. This was greeted with a lot of uproar by Nigerians who saw the action as a demonstration of government’s insensitivity to the plights of Nigerians.

Amaechi had while justifying the move then argued that government was left with no choice than to increase the fares due to the need to observe social distancing in the train to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

He said: “We need to maintain social distancing in the train. Taking 56 passengers instead of 88 passengers in each coach means you are losing money from 25 passengers. And instead of the N120 million before, we will start making less than N60 million; our running cost is about N90 to N100 million.

The only two options we are left with are either to increase the fares or government subsidises. We gave government the opportunity but there is no money so government can’t subsidise. At the beginning, we were subsidising, making N16 million in a month and our operation cost was N56 million. So, we were subsidising N40 million on monthly basis to run and government does not have that kind of money. So, passengers will have to bear it.”

Historically, it is believed that rail transportation is cheaper than road transportation among other advantages such as shorter travel time and safety of travellers. Nonetheless, in advanced countries where train services have become very effective, the fare is usually subsidised.

According to Wikipedia, “many countries offer subsidies to their railways because of the social and economic benefits that it brings. The economic benefits can greatly assist in funding the rail network. Rail subsidies vary in both size and how they are distributed, with some countries funding the infrastructure and others funding trains and their operators, while others have a mixture of both. Subsidies can be used for either investment in upgrades and new lines, or to keep lines running that create economic growth.

“Rail subsidies are largest in China ($130 billion) and Europe (€73 billion), while the United States has relatively small subsidies for passenger rail with freight not subsidised.”

Fullfact.org also reported that the United Kingdom’s direct subsidy of the railways was around £5 billion per year, an increase of over 200 per cent since “privatisation”.

In Kenya, the Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is a 480 kilometre-long line that connects the port city of Mombasa with the capital city of Nairobi. Construction began in 2013; parts of it were completed in 2017 at a cost of approximately USD$3.8 billion. An additional $1.5 billion extension to the tourist hub of Naivasha was completed in 2019. While the railway operates passenger services, its primary function is to improve freight transportation to and from the Port of Mombasa.

Prior January 2019, the government of Kenya used to pay subsidies on rail transportation specifically for children aged between three and 11 years. A passenger travelling to Kaduna from Abuja, who simply identified himself as Safawa, lamented that while the government has declared that it has no money to subsidise rail transport in the country, the NRC has continued to charge the same fares it charged when social distancing was being observed in the trains.

He said: “Seating arrangement in the train is like what it use to be. There is no social distancing whatsoever. In fact, when I was coming to Abuja, they (NRC officials) brought a lady to seat in the middle of the three-row seat where I sat. She refused but they still brought another person.”

He also lamented the increasing rate of ticket racketeering in Rigasa Station, Kaduna State, saying the train officials don’t sell tickets until an hour to the scheduled time. This, he said, gives room for ticket racketeering as passengers rush into the station almost at the same time to ensure they get on board.

He added: “Kaduna to Abuja train service is N2,600 but I had to give N3,000 to the boy that helped me buy the ticket. After buying the ticket, we would have to rush into the station to catch the next train because if care is not taken, you will have to wait for the next train.”

Another commuter who simply identified himself as Abubakar also said government does not have any moral justification to raise the fares by about 150 per cent. He argued that if they were maintaining social distancing on the train and passengers had to pay for two seats, the fare should not be more than N2, 600. He noted, however, that the spate of insecurity in the country has left them with no choice than to travel by rail to their destinations.

“For instance, I am travailing to Kano. I could not get a straight flight from Port Harcourt to Kano so I came into Abuja since 9.00am. I have been waiting at the train station since 10.00am for the 6.00pm train. If the security situation in the country was good, I would have gone by road; but due to the fear of being kidnapped, I have to wait for the train,” he stated.

The Managing Director of Bethlehem Railway Infrastructure, Rowland Ataguba, also insisted that the sustenance of high fares on Abuja-Kaduna train service while social distancing is no longer being maintained was a breach of trust.

Ataguba also noted that the key to stemming ticket racketeering was e-ticketing. “This is well known but unfortunately the NRC has failed to implement it so far while commuters have continued to be exploited and abused,” he stated.

He pointed out that the present state of affairs in the rail sector was a sad reflection of our public service, noting that, “it may endure until we reform the railway sector, deepen the participation of the private sector, separate regulation from operation and restructure the railway environment.”

In his reaction, Managing Director of NRC, Fidelis Okhiria, explained that the fares on the Abuja-Kaduna route had not reduced because the corporation was yet to adjust the price on the ticket.

“If you have ticket of N6,000 and you sell for N5,000 how do you account for that? So, we are trying to re-arrange the ticketing,” he stated. The Guardian however observed that Abuja to Kaduna by road was still a booming business for road transporters as passengers that could not go through the hassle of waiting for the train or paying high fares patronise them despite the insecurity challenge.

But the high fares appears to have had a spiral effect on road transport fares on the route, as the fare that used to be within the range of N1,000 to N1,200 has gone up to N2,000 at the Jabi motor park.

A transporter, who does not want his name in print, disclosed that despite the insecurity situation on the Abuja-Kaduna road, at least 30-50 cars and buses still leave the park on a daily basis.

Commuters on the Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan route also appear not ready to pay the train fares.

“Ibadan to Lagos N2500? They must be mad! Train used to be cheaper than road transport. Go to Dubai; go to United Kingdom; come to America. Someone living in ring road will still cab to Ologuneru and obviously take another cab from drop off in Lagos to wherever you are going. Why is Nigerian government just being heartless like this?” queried one Ajayi Juwon.

To Olufemi Adeniji, “they think Ibadan is Lagos or Abuja. They should have done free test run for some weeks before fixing the price. I am sure they will soon be forced to reduce it to N1,000. That is when the Ibadan people that I know will patronise it.”

Notwithstanding the outcry by Nigerians against the high fares, a lecturer at the University of Greenwich, London, Dr. Emmanuel Mogaji, said train transportation had often compared with air travel in terms of cost, stating that road transport would likely be cheaper.   Mogaji said: “Time is money. Train can take five hours and bus will take 10 hours; that is in a more developed country with a good road network where people can drive (instead of using bus), which can be cheaper.

“We need to recognise that train transportation is a different mode. We are gradually being introduced to it, so passengers should not be discouraged with high cost.   “We need to recognise that train transportation is new to many people in Nigeria. We have seen it but again many people have not benefited from it. Therefore, I will not expect the price to be discouraging.”According to him, government should encourage people to take the train by subsidising the fares, at least for now.

“NRC management should get people on board, change people’s travel behaviour and let them see the benefit of train transportation. Then we can start considering increase in price or making it more expensive than road.

“I think the cause is that those involved want to eat their cake and have it. This is something new, though expensive and therefore they want to make their money or get returns on their investment in the shortest possible time whereas they should be looking at the long-term prospects.”

On its part, the Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR) said that the fare regime introduced by the NRC management on its new Lagos-Ibadan standard gauge train was not commuter-friendly.

The trade union noted that the fare should be made affordable to attract the patronage and trust of the commuting public. Speaking on the loans used to fund the rail projects, Secretary General of NUR, Segun Esan, said the government should be mindful of the fact that the subsisting terms on the loans were in compliance with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007.

Esan argued that the loan with which various railway infrastructure were built were clearly project-tied, saying the projects must be viable and managed in a manner that they would generate revenues to repay the lenders.

 
To achieve this, NUR said the Federal Government through the Ministry of Transportation and NRC must wear the robe of a shrewd capitalist. He explained: “The capitalist businessman should not be expected to be any friendly or socially considerate of the end users or consumers of the services provided or driven by loans.

“Certainly, this is the price the masses will pay so as to make the train service self-sustaining and efficient enough to indemnify all loans taken to build it.

“Conversely, I think the onus is on the Federal Government to make the impact of the loans quite subtle and almost unnoticeable on the masses especially the commuting public by making the fare regime really people-centric and largely affordable so as to attract huge traffic offer to the new railway while simultaneously making Lagos-Ibadan Expressway less busy and free of heavy traffic, safe and long lasting.”

Esan further advised the Federal Government to make new Lagos-Ibadan train service the preferred choice for travellers and freighters by drastically bringing down the fare regime and increasing the running frequency of the trains so as to optimise earnings and be able to service the loans.

He cautioned the NRC management against framing the Lagos-Ibadan train service along the operational context of Abuja-Kaduna train service, which is presently enjoying steeped patronage by high net-worth users who were ‘confined’ to travel by train or flight because of the security challenges associated with travelling along the same axis by road.

Esan noted that he would not be surprised if Abuja-Kaduna train service drops any moment the government addresses the security challenges in that axis.   “NRC and its supervising ministry should remember that the stuff of prospective passengers expected on Lagos-Ibadan trains does not exist in the same luxury, sophistication and economic bracket as the Abuja-Kaduna passengers who are known to be well off.

“However, it is not too late for the NRC to get back to the drawing table with a view to reworking the fare regime that already has been greeted with public criticisms,” he said.

Reacting to the call for fare reduction, the Lagos Railway District Manager of the NRC, Jerry Oche, urged Nigerians to patronise the train and experience it first. He said the rail coaches were not comparable to vehicles, stressing that they were more comfortable. He argued that the charges were in ranges, in a bid to ensure that everyone would be able to make a choice.

With the poor patronage recorded at take off last Monday, the days and weeks ahead would show if his persuasion had a positive effect on Nigerians or not.

‘Paying The Cheapest Is Not Always The Best To Sustain A Good Service’ Prof. Samuel Gbadebo Odewumi is a professor of Transport and Environment, and the Dean, School of Transport, Lagos State University, Ojo. He spoke with DANIEL ANAZIA on the prevailing high train fares and other issues in Nigeria’s rail sector.   What is your take on the railway remodeling projects going on in the country? RAILWAY is a bulk mover of people and goods. The effects of the absence of functioning railway are noticeable on rapidly deteriorating roads and the congestion occasioned by trailers and tankers. A functioning rail link to Apapa port would have saved the nation the agonising gridlock. Some routes have become operational. For instance, the Lagos-Ibadan and Abuja-Kaduna, but the masses are complaining that the fare is high compared to what they pay for road transportation. What do you think about this?

The high cost of fares has to do with the social distancing which means they are operating at 50 per cent passenger capacity. I believe this is quite unnecessary. They should operate full capacity with other COVID-19 protocols observed. Besides, I guess they are trying to discourage ticket racketeering whereby because it is cheap many crooks are making a kill by buying up the ticket to sell at several times the official price. This is the sad fact on Abuja-Kaduna rail.

Is it right for the public to pay so much for an infrastructure that was built with their money? The railway was built with borrowed money from China. There must be a repayment plan or else we will have to pay with our dwindling petrol dollars. This is not a validation of the price arbitrarily fixed, but we must not always think that infrastructure built should not be run on a sustainable basis. If not, very soon it will run down for lack of fund to maintain it. Paying the cheapest is not always the best to sustain a good service.

We borrowed money to build it? Should we continue to borrow money to run it? Just imagine that Abuja-Kaduna is running at a loss despite heavy patronage. Our journalists should investigate this to expose whatever is going on there. You may indirectly be favouring racketeering if the business facts are not well explained.

But this borrowed money from China will still be paid by the masses? The masses presently cannot pay, that is the truth. It is expected that we will pay back with petrol revenue, which is no longer there. Which segment of the masses is contributing for the repayment? Don’t get me wrong, I believe that the price was arbitrarily fixed, that with the jettisoning of social distancing and increase in trips, the price will come down. And with the price coming down patronage will go up. But there must be a balance such that racketeering will not become the order of the day like the Abuja-Kaduna route, such that the money that should go legitimately to sustain the service goes to crooks. There is also this default mode of our media always playing to the gallery by appearing to be on the side of the masses without diligent investigation to adequately inform the masses and guide the government. Thus, the low easy roads are taken, which later becomes unsustainable and the service goes down and the masses suffer more in the end.

As a professor of transport, given what you know about the operations of railway globally, what do you think government will do to ensure sustainability? The best approach is to outsource the management. Transport management and operations globally is partly run as a social service; it can hardly survive strictly as business venture. But the worst form of corruption and greed by our public servants compounds our own situation. It is sad but true that our capacity to manage any of the public transport modes is grossly inadequate on account of our corrupt tendencies. The other painful part is the lack of publicity and public enlightenment on the roll out of the Lagos-Ibadan rail. It was just a casual announcement in Abuja by the minister, no special press conference and tour. That explains the extremely low patronage at the take off. This shows the lack of concerns for the economics of their operations. Also the single trip in a day is terribly uneconomical and that’s another reason for the high cost. There will be economy of scale if the price is moderate and the patronage is huge.

DECEMBER 12, 2020

Every year an increasing number of Nigerians flee poverty and unrest at home. Now, rich Nigerians are planning their escape too. And they’re taking their money with them.

By Ollie Williams

Dapo has spent too long at home in Lagos, Nigeria. Back in October, protests against the SARS police unit kept him from going to his office. “First, we were told to stay at home because of the coronavirus. Then this,” he says.

A wealthy Nigerian, Dapo, who is in his late 30s, does not want to make himself identifiable by giving his surname and age, lest it draw unwanted attention.

He has had a “backup plan” for getting out of Nigeria for some time, he says. “I have Maltese citizenship. I can leave for there any time.” With one small obstacle – a 14-day quarantine upon arrival – Dapo could be permanently in Malta any time he pleases. He is not planning to go imminently, but describes it as his “plan b’’.

Dapo is one of a rapidly growing number of Nigerians who have bought so-called “golden visas” or foreign citizenships-by-investment this year. In his case it was Malta, the Mediterranean island where citizenship can be acquired for a minimum investment of 800,000 euros ($947,180) through the Malta Citizenship by Investment Programme.

An aerial view over Malta Freeport in Valletta, in March 2018 [File:Getty Images]

Not that he has any special love for Malta. A record 92 countries around the world now allow wealthy individuals to become residents or citizens in return for a fee, sometimes as low as $100,000 but often several million dollars. It is billed as a “win-win”: The country gets much-needed foreign investment and, in return, the new citizens have new passports that open up more of the world to travel or live in.

Golden visas are the lesser-reported side of the Nigerian migration story. Every year thousands of Nigerians make their way to Europe via perilous crossings over the Sahara and Mediterranean. Now their wealthier counterparts are also making their way to Europe but via a different route.

A record year for golden visas

Whether rich or poor, the reasons for leaving one’s home country are often the same. Fear of political uncertainty at home and hope for better opportunities elsewhere. But 2020 has been exceptional.

Like Dapo, Folajimi Kuti, 50, was watching the #EndSARS protests from his home in Lagos in October. “I have children, they’re teenagers, and they’re asking me questions like, ‘How did we get here?’” he says, referring to the violence that accompanied demonstrations against the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

Kuti says he has believed for some time that social unrest would boil over in Nigeria, because of issues of poverty and police brutality. “It had been clear for the past two or three years that something was going to happen. It’s happened now in 2020 but, frankly, we’ve been expecting this outburst for a while so it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’. It was a matter of ‘when’.”

An aerial view shows the central business district in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos in 2009 [File: Reuters]

Citizenship or residency abroad has become appealing, he adds. As a financial adviser to the wealthy, Kuti knows the process of applying for one having walked clients through it before. Most of his work involves advising Nigeria’s growing number of millionaires about investments and wealth planning. But now they are asking about foreign citizenships and Kuti himself is tempted by the idea. “Just knowing that if you need to go you certainly could and move without any restriction.”

The rush for golden visas among rich Nigerians started before October’s SARS protests. At London-based Henley & Partners, one of the world’s largest citizenship advisory firms, applications by Nigerians increased by 185 percent during the eight months to September 2020, making them the second-largest nationality to apply for such schemes after Indians.

More than 1,000 Nigerians have enquired about the citizenship of another country through Henley & Partners this year alone, which Paddy Blewer, head of marketing, says “is unheard of. We’ve never had this many people contacting us”.

Many, like Kuti, saw political problems ahead and wanted an escape plan. Others were focused on coronavirus: What if the pandemic overwhelms Nigeria?

“There is a lack of primary healthcare capacity that would be able to manage with either a second wave or whatever happens in, say, 2025,” says Blewer. “Let’s say there is COVID-21 still going on in 2025 that is of an order or magnitude worse. It’s, ‘Do I want to be based here and only based here, or do I want an alternative base of operations where I believe I will be safer and I will be able to run my global businesses’.

“And, I think, that’s what COVID has driven.”

The Victoria Island waterfront is seen from the affluent Ikoyi neighbourhood in Lagos, in June 2014 [File: Reuters]

It was in July, when the number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria escalated, that wealthy Nigerians started looking more seriously at citizenship abroad, experts say. “Those with medical conditions that could not fly out – a lot of them are buying passports just because if there is any problem they can fly out,” says Olusegun Paul Andrew, 56, a Nigerian entrepreneur and investor who spends much of the year in the Netherlands.

“Flying out” of Nigeria is hard and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic. Just 26 countries allow Nigerian passport holders visa-free entry, many of them part of West Africa’s ECOWAS arrangement. Both the United Kingdom and Europe’s Schengen zone require Nigerians to obtain visas ahead of travelling.

For the wealthy, this is too much hassle. “They don’t want to be queueing for visas for any EU country or whatever,” says Andrew. Instead, why not purchase the citizenship of a country with visa-free access to Europe?

To Europe, via the Caribbean

Bimpe, a wealthy Nigerian who also does not wish to give her full name, has three passports. One Nigerian, which she says she never uses, and two from Caribbean nations: St Kitts and Nevis; and Grenada.

The St Kitts and Nevis passport, which cost her $400,000 via a real estate investment programme, was useful when she travelled between London and New York on business as it allows for visa-free travel to the UK and Europe. But now that she has retired in Abuja, Bimpe, whose husband has passed away, wants her three adult sons to have the same opportunities to travel and live abroad.

“My kids were interested in visa-free travel. They are young graduates, wanting to explore the world. So that was the reason for my investment,” she explains.

A general view of Grenada taken in March, 2019 [File: Getty Images]

Her investment to gain a Grenada passport for herself and her sons took the form of a $300,000 stake in the Six Senses La Sagesse hotel on the Caribbean island, which she bought in 2015 through a property development group called Range Developments. Like most countries offering their citizenship for sale, Grenada allows real estate investments to qualify for a passport.

Bimpe’s family has lived overseas before – spending nine years in the UK between 2006 and 2015. Of her three sons, she says: “One, for sure now, is never going to leave Nigeria. He loves it here. The second one lives in England. He’s been in England long enough to get British residency. My youngest – for him, living abroad is a very, very attractive option. He’s not very happy [in Nigeria]. He went to England very young – at age 12 – and he’s had a problem adjusting since. He’s been back in Nigeria five years and he’s still not settled.”

Now aged 26, Bimpe’s youngest son is looking at settling in the UK or in the US where, thanks to his Grenada citizenship, he qualifies for an E-2 visa, something not available to his fellow Nigerians since President Donald Trump’s ban on immigrant visa applications in February. Bimpe believes his career opportunities in acting – he studied Drama in the UK – are better abroad, and therefore considers the Grenada citizenship to be a worthwhile investment.

Neither Bimpe nor her sons have ever been to Grenada even though their investment allows them to stay on the Caribbean island, once known as The Spice Island. “I intend to go. I would like to go,” she says. “Just when I did [the investment], it was soon after my husband died and I wasn’t in the mood for travel and then I got my passport but there was no good reason for travel due to the pandemic.”

The Six Senses La Sagesse is being constructed by Range Developments, whose founder and managing director, Mohammed Asaria, says it is not unusual for investors never to visit. In fact, since there is no obligation for citizenship investors to visit Grenada, interest in the scheme has ballooned among Nigerians.

An aerial view of the Six Senses Grenada [Photo courtesy of Range Developments]

“We have between high single figures and low double-digit sales of hotel units on a monthly basis to Nigerians. The average investment is just under $300,000,” says Asaria. “It’s a big market for us. And it’s going to get bigger. There are 300 million people [in Nigeria].” Of these, more than 40,000 are millionaires and, therefore, potential customers for golden visas, according to the Knight Frank Wealth Report.

It is a similar story across the Caribbean. Arton Capital, a citizenship advisory group, says demand from Nigerian families for Antigua and Barbuda citizenship is up 15 percent this year compared with the last.

St Lucia has also seen a record number of Nigerians applying in 2020. “It’s more than it’s ever been over the past four years,” says Nestor Alfred, CEO of the St Lucia Citizenship-by-Investment Unit.

The citizenship market is not exclusive to the Caribbean, but these are the cheapest and they maintain that all-important visa-free access to Europe that their clients are hankering after.

Tax incentives

“I’m rich but I’m not a Donald Trump. I wasn’t looking for a tax escape,” says Bimpe.

Investing in a foreign citizenship is not illegal for Nigerians, but the issue of wealthy citizens moving their assets overseas is a thorny one in Nigeria, where about $15bn is lost to tax evasion every year, according to the country’s Federal Inland Revenue Service. Much of that money finds its way to the Caribbean, as was highlighted in the leaked documents that formed part of the Panama Papers in 2016.

The tax benefits of an overseas citizenship are undoubtedly attractive. Citizens can become tax residents of countries like Dominica, where there is no wealth or inheritance tax, or Grenada which offers “corporate tax incentives”. In Europe, Malta has long been courting hedge funds with its light-touch regulations.

Tourists take photographs down a typical street in Valletta, Malta in 2018 [File:Getty Images]

Being a citizen of a country with a more stable currency is also appealing to the wealthy. “Second citizenship helps with capital mobility. Pull up a graph of the Naira. If you look at the Naira for the last 10 years it’s been a horrible journey,” says Asaria. Better, therefore, in the minds of the wealthy, to own assets in euros or even East Caribbean dollars which are pegged to the US dollar.

“Businesses are struggling, inflation on the rise, insecurity, and a host of other issues. These issues have prompted an increase in citizenship or residency-by-investment from wealthy Nigerians in a bid to secure a better future for their families in developed countries,” says Evans Ahanaonu, a Lagos-based representative for High Net Worth Immigration, a citizenship advisory firm. Grenada and Turkey are popular for clients wanting quick access to Europe, he adds, while some go straight for the UK Innovator Visa which means setting up a business in the UK.

Given the number of applications processed by the citizenship advisory firms interviewed just for this article, a conservative estimate would put the amount invested by Nigerians into citizenship schemes at more than $1bn this year alone.

Where rich and poor migrants meet

The loss of wealth from Nigeria has severe implications for levels of employment in the country. With wealthy businesspeople investing their capital outside Nigeria rather than in it, there is less funding for local businesses or government projects which might otherwise generate employment. This, in turn is causing more poorer Nigerians to want to move overseas as well, in search of better work opportunities, a trend backed up by the findings of a 2018 survey by Afrobarometer, the data analysis group.

Just before the pandemic struck, Kingsley Aneoklloude, 35, was able to make his way to Europe, but via a very different route.

He was working as a mechanic in his village in Edo State, one of the country’s poorer provinces which have been untouched by oil wealth, where he earned 1,500 naira ($3.95) a week.

The salary was poor but the final straw was police brutality. Aneoklloude was briefly employed as a local election monitor during the 2015 presidential elections. He says he was pressured by representatives of a political party to manipulate ballot papers, but refused, after which he became afraid for his safety. “I left because they were chasing me. Honestly, they come and chase me,” he says.

In a photo from 2019, migrants fleeing from Libya on an overcrowded wooden boat wait to be rescued in the Mediterranean Sea [File: AP]

First, he went to Kano State in the north of Nigeria. Then, in December 2019, Aneoklloude made the dangerous journey to Europe via Niger, then Libya, “where there was a heavy war in Tripoli”, before crossing the Mediterranean.

While adrift on the Mediterranean Sea, his small boat was rescued by Open Arms, an NGO which helps refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Their ship docked in Lampedusa, one of the Italian Pelagie Islands, where Aneoklloude’s asylum application for Germany was processed.

Now in Potsdam, Germany, he is waiting to hear the outcome of his application for new citizenship and a job. “I have a nine-month contract for work, but they need the immigration officer to sign the contract before I start,” he explains.

At 35, Aneoklloude is just a few years younger than Dapo. Both have witnessed police brutality from different angles, and both saw the Mediterranean as their way out.

But now, with Nigeria’s economy officially in another recession, more will likely follow. It is a dangerous spiral: The more wealth taken out of Nigeria, the fewer jobs available to its poorest.

DECEMBER 13, 2020

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands has jumped by almost 10,000 in the past 24 hours, data released by national health authoriites showed on Sunday, marking their biggest jump since the end of October.

The increase continues a rising trend seen over the previous week, as the effects of a partial lockdown which has been in effect since Oct. 13 seem to have waned.

The Dutch government has convened an emergency meeting for Sunday to discuss extra measures to limit the spread of the disease. It is expected to make an announcement of possible further measures on Tuesday.

Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Gareth Jones

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

DECEMBER 13, 2020

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will close most stores from Wednesday until at least Jan. 10, cutting short the busy Christmas shopping season, as it tightens coronavirus restrictions and tries to rein in the spread of the disease, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday.

“I would have wished for lighter measures. But due to Christmas shopping the number of social contacts has risen considerably,” Merkel told journalists following a meeting with leaders of the country’s 16 federal states.

“There is an urgent need to take action,” she said. Only essential shops such as supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as banks, are to remain open from Dec. 16. Hair salons, beauty salons and tattoo parlours will also have to shut.

The government will support affected companies with a total of around 11 billion euros ($13.3 billion) a month. Businesses that are forced to close may receive up to 90% of fixed costs, or up 500,000 euros a month, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said.

Schools will be closed in principle, and employers are asked to close operations or have employees work from home. The sale of fireworks will be banned ahead of New Year’s Eve.

Germany has been in partial lockdown for six weeks, with bars and restaurants closed, while stores and schools have remained open. Some regions have already imposed tougher measures as infections grew.

“‘Lockdown light’ has had an impact, but it was not sufficient,” Bavaria’s prime minister Markus Soeder said. “The situation is out of control.”

Private gatherings will remain limited to no more than five people from two households. For the Christmas holidays, the rule will be eased slightly so that families can celebrate together.

Merkel and Soeder said it was too soon to say whether the economy could re-open after Jan. 10.

New daily infections and deaths have reached records in recent days, and more politicians have been sounding the alarm.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, was more successful than many European countries in keeping the pandemic under control in the first wave in March and April. But it has been struggling to turn the tide in the second wave.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 20,200 to 1,320,716, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 321 to 21,787, the tally showed.

Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Tom Sims and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Frances Kerry

DECEMBER 14, 2020

From Nigeria to South Africa and all the countries around and in-between, transportation stakeholders in Africa are increasingly leaning on emerging technologies in commuting applications, customer data information management, and payments to find innovative solutions that will deliver a seamless service delivery for their customers. 

This continent’s wide quest to leverage technology has become imperative, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Key players in aviation, port, rail and road sub-sectors are seeking to alleviate the many pain points that afflict the industry, while enabling seamless and efficient systems alongside a passenger experience that will usher in development and sustainable prosperity for operators. 

However, there is a worrying sluggishness to the adoption of digital payment solutions across the continent. This is not unrelated to a number of irksome issues around the payment experience such as stressful processes and a question of trust, which have combined to complicate matters for travel passengers. For example, while most frequent air travelers know that purchasing tickets online is not only more affordable than buying over the counter, it is also far more convenient, but many passengers still put up with the stress of physical purchases. 

On the other side of this dichotomy is the difficulty occasioned by that same fragmented nature of ancillary services associated with the industry and the corresponding challenges travel companies themselves endure in managing the multiple Payment Service Providers (PSPs) who power the many platforms for those various offerings connected to the aviation industry, and entire transportation ecosystem.  

A case in point was an unpleasant incident in 2010 when an Aero Contractors flight from Lagos to Abuja was delayed because the aircraft had more passengers than it could carry legitimately. This scenario was a direct result of the airline’s inability to accurately account for the number of passengers that had booked online across various platforms due also to an absence of an integrated operations and payment platform. Though that era has passed, the incident left scars on many people who would rather now pay cash. 

Still in Nigeria, the administration of former Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State, established a public transport system called Ajumose similar to the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) in Lagos, which leverages digital payment for seamless operations. Unlike the Lagos’ approach, which has, to some extent, succeeded, that of Oyo State is flailing and almost moribund because of fraud and ticket racketeering. 

The Oyo model could have fared better if there was a unified payment system for cashless payments that would have eliminated the issues. 

Putting the issues into proper perspective is a 2018 Study Report by PYMNTs.com and Amadeus, on Payments Travel, which revealed that the struggle for travel companies is real when it comes to managing PSPs. 

The study showed that most travel companies use between three to 10 outside PSPs, with only 8% relying on just two. Four out of 10 travel operators admitted to having trouble managing multiple PSPs, with nearly half (49%) of them citing the complexity of their existing payments system as a hindrance. In addition, travel companies spend a weighted average total cost of about 5.4% of their revenues, representing approximately $75 billion on their payments systems.

Those issues mainly result from a lack of interoperability among mobile money operators, low credit card uptakes, and preference towards local debit cards making payments processing in Africa difficult. This struggle is further compounded by the absence of a common African currency which, for airlines or hotels with a presence in multiple countries, increases the turnaround payment processing and settlement period. 

These problems extend to other means of transportation across the continent, but which incidentally are effectively being resolved with universal digital payment solutions that create seamless payment experience for passengers on one hand, and smoother business operations for operators, on the other hand. 

“Digitizing the public transport sector is inevitable (to evolve and transform the industry) in a way that both the governments and transport companies, as well as everyday commuting public can gain from its implementation as it affects not just aviation, but ground transportation, Logistics, etc,” Patrick Buchana Nsenga, Founder & CEO, AC Group noted during an industry Webinar event hosted by Cellulant.

Incidentally, Payment Service Providers like Cellulant are investing in building the infrastructure that will address the struggles for the travel sector to reduce the number of PSPs that travel companies deploy to just one or two, while also improving the customer’s experience through an integrated simplified payment system.

Most recently, Cellulant has expanded it’s digital payments platform to better serve sectors such as the airlines industry. They have partnered with airlines such as Kenya Airways to provide a variety of mobile and bank payment options to its customers paying for bookings online. The success of this first-of-its-kind payment solution in Kenya further sparked the transformation drive that has seen Cellulant forge ahead to power local and international payment methods for local, regional and global airlines across Africa., 

Particularly driving Cellulant’s committed intervention in the travel industry is the customer insight that the increasingly mobile and internet penetration on the continent is resulting in the modern African consumer developing heightened appetites for on-the-go payment methods that put all transactional solutions at-their-fingertips. 

In Nigeria, more travel companies are beginning to see payments innovation as a long-term investment. Payments Services Providers such as Cellulant with a local and pan-African reach will be great partners to airline operators and inter-state transport companies looking to expand their businesses and offer seamless payments solutions to their customers.

DECEMBER 14, 2020

Nigerians, who travel by air, have decried the “sudden” upsurge in airfares and urged the Federal Government to intervene to avoid poor patronage that could dwindle the fortunes of the aviation industry. 

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the airfares shot up by about 100 per cent in the last one week, with some airline operators even raising their fares by as much as 120 per cent or more. At Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, the fare from Abuja to Lagos, which was N35,300 (Economy Class), rose to between N70,000 and N75,000. 

NAN found that Business Class travellers were charged between N100,000 and N120,000, depending on the airline. Our correspondents, who visited other airports across the country, found that the rise in airfares was the same, a situation that forced some passengers to either abort their travel plans or travel by road or rail

Some airline operators have attributed the upsurge in fares to the current exchange rate and claimed that a dollar that exchanged for N365 in November had gone up to between N480 and N500 in the open market. Mr Kehinde Ogunyale, Station Manager, Max Air, NAIA, told NAN that the rise in the fare was inevitable if the airlines were to stay afloat. “If we do not increase the fare, we may be left behind and will not be able to fund operations anymore,” he explained. Ogunyale further said that the festive season had also contributed to the fare increase. 

“We are in a season when demand usually outweighs capacity. We expect the fares to be forced down in January when there will be a drought of passengers,” he said. Mr Abdulmalik Jibreel, Station Manager of Aero Contractors, another airline at NAIA, offered the same dollar-to-naira exchange rate coupled with high demand for tickets by passengers as reasons for the upsurge in fares. 

“The airlines have no option than to increase the fare to meet the cost of foreign exchange in the market of aircraft parts,” he told NAN. But, as the airline operators struggle to explain the fare upsurge, the air passengers have decried the “astronomical” rise and expressed the fear that the situation would go out of hands if there were no urgent steps to check it. 

Some of them, who spoke with NAN in Ibadan, Akure and Ilorin on Sunday, said that air travelling might soon become unaffordable by many people if nothing urgent was done. Mr Abdulraman Balogun, a civil servant, attributed the high fare on the Ibadan-Abuja route to the monopoly being enjoyed by one airline. Balogun said that the monopoly enjoyed by the firm had inhibited passengers from making choices, and called on the Federal Government to upgrade the Ibadan Airport to an international airport and make it a hub for the South-West zone, aside from the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos. 

This, he said, would allow bigger planes to ply Ibadan-Lagos route, thus leading to a reduction in airfare. “Other airlines do not patronise Ibadan Airport because of its local status. If it is made an international airport, it will definitely attract other airlines and there will be competition among them and this will force down the airfare,” he argued. Balogun said that most passengers were sad at being made to pay through their noses to get to their respective destinations.

Another passenger, Alhaji Issa Ore, Chairman of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Kwara, bemoaned the 100 per cent fare hike, especially at Ilorin Airport, describing it as unacceptable. He said that airline operators had been taking advantage of bad roads in some parts of the country, which had forced many people to opt for air travels, to arbitrarily hike their fares. According to the labour leader, if the roads had been motorable and train services available, most people would have preferred to travel by road. “The increase in airfare is not a good development.

The airline operators are taking advantage of our bad roads to increase airfares arbitrarily. “The roads are not motorable; one would have gone by train if rail transport had fully taken off. We are just helpless,” he said. An Ilorin-based lawyer, Mr Kamaludeen Issa, said that he could not afford the airfare again due to the hike. “Although I don’t like travelling by road, my financial capacity can no longer withstand the astronomical fees being charged by airlines,” he said. Issa attributed the development to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic recession currently being experienced in the country and the fall in the value of naira. 

Also speaking, Dr Misbaudeen Lawal, a Consultant Pharmacist, said he had to make do with road transportation for now as the hike in airfare had been eating deep into his pocket. He urged the Federal Government to intensify efforts to make the rail system work in the country so that it could be an alternative to air transportation that was gradually getting out of reach. For Mr Bode Adeloye, a businessman, it is unfortunate that airfares are increasing at this period when the country is facing security challenges. 

He urged the Federal Government to review its policies in order to make the aviation sector more attractive to investors. Another air traveller, Ayinla Abdulquadri, said that inflation and high rate of foreign exchange had been responsible for the hike in airfares. “Imagine this situation- the Ilorin-Abuja air ticket that we used to buy for between N29,000 and 30,000 is now between N50,000 and N55,000. 

This is a very serious matter. “While the increase in petrol price has resulted in high road transport fare, air transport is also experiencing its own challenges as the operators are running at a loss. “Honestly, I don’t know what to say again other than to just advise the government to fashion out policies that will favour the aviation sector, especially the local air unit, and prevent it from collapse,” Abdulquadri said. Residents of Calabar in Cross River have also decried the current hike in airfare by flight operators as the Yuletide period approaches. 

One of them, Mr Joseph Bassey, Deputy Speaker, Cross River House of Assembly, told NAN at the Margret Ekpo International Airport that the recent hike in airfare was “outrageous”. Bassey, who lamented that the hike was coming at a time when Nigerians were travelling across the country to celebrate the Christmas season with loved ones, said that the development would hinder many families from travelling by air. 

According to him, most of the roads across the country are in a bad shape, with kidnappers and traffic gridlock making them a particularly bad option. “Many of us will be happy to travel by road, but the worsening insecurity scares everyone,” he said. He called on the Federal Government to look inward and dialogue with the air operators with a view to reviewing the airfare downward in order to allow Nigerians to travel by air. “The Ministers of Aviation and Transport should come in speedily and look into this. 

The government should be interested in why the fare has gone up. If possible, the Federal Government should offer waivers to these airline operators to help them reduce the burden on the common man. “If the Federal Government fails to intervene, most people will stay in their locations without travelling because the amount involved is outrageous,” he said. 

A passenger, Dr Benjamin Edet, who told NAN that it cost him N50,000 to travel to Abuja on Ibom Air on Dec. 10, said that the amount was more than double the N24,000 the flight ticket had always cost. Edet lamented that the hike was coming at a time people had lost jobs, businesses and other valuables to COVID-19 and #EndSARS protest. Some passengers at the Danbaba Suntai Airport in Jalingo, Taraba, have also bemoaned the increase in fare of flights. Some of them, who spoke with NAN, called on the Federal government to regulate the pricing component of the aviation industry. 

Alhaji Abdulmalik Mohammed, one of the passengers, who travelled from Abuja to Jalingo aboard Overland Air, complained of “a sharp increase in the fare”. Mohammed told NAN that he paid N53,000 on return from Abuja on Sunday, instead of the N38,000 he paid when he boarded from Jalingo to Abuja on Tuesday. He said he was suspecting the effect of COVID-19 as operators were out to recover their losses.

He also agreed that the weak Naira against the dollar was another factor that led to the hike in aviation fares, urging the Federal Government to intervene with a view to stabilising the fares of air transportation. Air passengers in Jos have also deried the sudden hike in airfares in the country. Some of them told NAN that the hike in airfare was “outrageous”. 

Mr Abubakar Ballo, a member of the Plateau of Assembly, particularly lamented the huge hike in airfare from Jos to Lagos. “Yes, we know that the COVID-19 protocol that prescribes social distancing in the aircraft has limited the number of passengers an aircraft can carry at a time, but this increase did not take the nation’s economic realities into consideration. “Before now, I usually board Arik Air to Lagos at between N40,000 to N60,000, depending on the time I book. “But it is now N116,000, a 100 per cent rise. This simply means an average Nigerian can’t afford to fly again,” he said.

Similarly, Mr Jacob Choji, a development worker, also described the hike in airfare as “anti-masses”. He attributed the development to the increase in the pump price of petrol, which included aviation fuel, without considering the effect on poor Nigerians. “Part of the issue is the hike on the price of aviation fuel. It is natural that when you hike the price of fuel, the ripple effect is enormous. “The hike in airfare is one of such ripple effects,” he said. But Dr Abdul Yunusa, President, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), has explained that multiple taxations and unstable foreign exchange have resulted in the unprecedented surge in airfares across the country. Yunusa also spoke of the delays associated with the clearance of aero tools and other goods by the Nigerian Customs Service, in spite of the Presidential order exempting airline operators from duties.

“Recently, we met with the Senate President and informed him of the situation regarding the double taxation and also the issue of Customs. “We held a similar meeting with the House of Representatives committee on finance to brief members on the issue. “We also met the finance minister where she confirmed the Presidential duty-free order,” Yunusa said. A cross-section of air passengers in Kano, while urging the Presidency to act quickly on the demands by AON, have equally decried the hike in the airfare, and accused the airline operators of exploitation. 

Malam Mustapha Muhammad, a passenger, said that the sudden surge in air ticket was disheartening, adding that the trend had exposed passengers to hardship. Muhammad said that the situation had forced him to suspend travelling by air as he could not afford the exorbitant airfares. “With security challenges in parts of the country, many people now avoid roads and prefer to travel by air for businesses and other activities. “But managers of micro and small enterprises cannot afford N60,000 and N80 for a single trip to other parts of the country. 

“The hikes in airfares will affect prices of good and services,” he said. Mr Shuaibu Umar, another passenger, said that he paid N126,000 return ticket from Abuja – Kano, about 100 per cent increase for a journey that used to cost N66,000. Mrs Tope Ayobolu, another passenger, said that with the current economic hardship, the hike in airfare was not a good development. “Before air ticket fares were increased, my son and I used to pay N97,000 from Yola to Lagos. “But with the current situation, we now N216,000. 

This is just unbelievable,” she said. But, in spite of the increase in the cost of air tickets, Benin Airport has continued to witness a rise in the number of people seeking to fly. A NAN correspondent, who visited the airport, observed that it was a beehive of activities with many landing, or anxious to fly. Some of the passengers, who spoke with NAN, however, said that they were not happy with the upsurge in air fares, especially in view of current economic challenges. One of them, Mr Paul Owie, said it would cost him a fortune to travel since he is a regular flier because of the nature of his business. 

“Before last year, I usually commute between Abuja and Benin on a regular basis by road, but the bitter experience I had forced me to change my mind from road journeys. “It is not going to be easy to cope with this new increase, but it is still better than going by road,” he stated. Like Owie, another regular flier, Musibau Afolabi, described the increase as “beyond the reach of most regular flying Nigerians”.

Afolabi opined that the airlines took advantage of the fact that most Nigerians now prefer flying than travelling by road because of insecurity. “We have all been complaining about the increase in the prices of goods and services, this increase will further worsen the situation. “You don’t expect a businessman, who spends so much in travelling to transact business, not to reflect this on his product.”

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/20...

DECEMBER 14, 2020

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is unlikely to lift its coronavirus lockdown early next year, a top aide to Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday, signalling Europe’s biggest economy will have to contend with the crippling restrictions well into the winter months.

Merkel and German state leaders agreed to shut most stores from Wednesday until Jan. 10 to reverse a tide of COVID-19 infections that lighter restrictions introduced last month had failed to tame.

“A comprehensive easing is very, very unlikely,” Helge Braun, Merkel’s chief of staff, told the RTL broadcaster. “January and February are always difficult months in terms of respiratory tract infections.”

Under the stricter rules, only essential shops such as supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as banks, are to remain open from Dec. 16. Hair salons, beauty salons, and tattoo parlours will also have to shut.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases reported more than 16,000 new cases and 188 deaths on Monday, almost half the daily infections reported late last week. But the drop could be linked to fewer tests being carried out and less data being transferred to the RKI during the weekend.

Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said the decision to shutter most aspects of social and economic life was necessary to bring the pandemic under control and prevent a recession next year.

Germany is forecast to suffer its worst recession since World War Two this year, and Altmaier said the longer the lockdown the bigger the economic fallout.

“It is possible, if we are smart, to protect the economy,” he told public broadcast Deutschlandfunk. “This requires financial aid and that we don’t have to always extend the lockdown indefinitely because we were not courageous enough.”

Merkel had hoped that a “lockdown lite” imposed in November will significantly bring down infections to a level that allows Germans to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s under almost normal circumstances.

But those hopes have been dashed by stubbornly high infection numbers that gave the chancellor, whose fourth and last term ends in less than a year, no choice but to seek a hard lockdown during the Christian festive season.

Unlike Britain and the United States, Germany doesn’t yet have approval for a vaccine against COVID-19. As a member of the European Union it must await the go-ahead by the European drugs regulator for the jab developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech.

Health Minister Jens Spahn expressed frustration with the lack of a decision by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on whether the jab was safe.

“All the necessary data on BioNTech are available,” he wrote on Twitter. “UK + US have already granted approval. An assessment of the data and an approval by EMA should happen as fast as possible.”

Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Maria Sheahan/Mark Heinrich

DECEMBER 14, 2020

By Layan Odeh and Manus Cranny

Air traffic between the United Kingdom and Dubai is expected to climb by a third in December as passengers take advantage of the travel corridor.

Bookings for December are “double what we experienced through previous months,” Dubai Airports Chief Executive Officer Paul Griffiths said in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

Getting vaccinated won’t be a requirement for passengers to enter the Middle Eastern travel hub, Griffiths said. It’s negative to suggest that being “inoculated is a precursor to travel” but that could change once the vaccine is out there and available for the population, he said.

CEO also said:
65% of airlines flying in the beginning of 2020 are back to Dubai Airports
Airport is in positioned to sustain liquidity and plans for austere 2021
Demand to surge once the vaccine is rolled out