Chinedu Eze
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warned Nigerian travel agents to stop issuing flight tickets to persons who buy them to use and purchase Basic Travel Allowance (BTA) and later cancel their flights after they have obtained foreign exchange from the banks.
The letter written to the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), titled ‘Re: Issuance of Tickets for Fraudulent Purchase of BTA’, addressed to the President of the association, Mrs. Susan Akporiaye and signed by the IATA Head of Account Management, West and Central Africa, Dr. Samson Fatoken, warned travel agents to desist from the unscrupulous act, which it described as economic sabotage.
The letter stated, “The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) called my attention to the criminal practice of air tickets being issued to unscrupulous persons for fraudulent purchase of BTA and same tickets are voided the same day once the economic fraud has been committed. This nefarious activity amounts to economic sabotage, as it constitutes a leakage in the CBN foreign exchange.
“Issuing tickets for the sole purpose of purchasing BTA and voiding those tickets thereafter, termed “ticket renting’ is fraudulent and amounts to participating in economic sabotage. You are advised to alert your members about this fraudulent practice and warn whichever agent might be involved in this economic sabotage to desist from it.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria expects our utmost cooperation.”
But in her reaction, the President of NANTA, Mrs. Susan Akporiaye told THISDAY that those engaging in the fraudulent activities were not registered members of the association because all the NANTA members had been instructed against engaging in such unscrupulous acts.
She said the Association would reply IATA and CBN and explain to them that there were other travel agents not registered with NANTA and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), so the association needs government’s intervention to ensure that all travel agents were registered members of NANTA so that government would be able to regulate them.
“I doubt that it is our members that are engaged in that fraudulent act because we have sensitised our members and at various meetings we have reinforced the message to them; so they know the implication.
“I understand the letter written to us because we are the umbrella association of travel agents in Nigeria. I will reply to the letter and explain to CBN and IATA that we need government support to ensure that everyone engaged in the travel agency is registered with the NCAA and us.
“Those who do this are not our members. There are many travel agents who are not our members. We have already disseminated this information to our members. We always emphasise it during our meetings. But IATA has written the letter to us. I am already preparing to respond to them. It is not in our character to be engaged in such illegal activities. Our registered members cannot engage in such. We need the support of the government to make sure that all agents are registered with us,” she said.
Nigeria has about 15,000 travel agents located in different parts of the country.
