Onome Amuge
Air Peace, Nigeria’s largest airline, has broken ground on a N32 billion aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Lagos’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport, in a move aimed at reducing the sector’s reliance on costly offshore services and boosting the country’s aviation infrastructure.
The project, backed by technical expertise from Brazilian aerospace group Embraer, is expected to generate about 50,000 jobs once completed and provide capacity for both domestic and international carriers seeking maintenance services in West Africa.
Allen Onyema, Air Peace’s chairman and chief executive, told attendees at the groundbreaking ceremony that Nigerian airlines collectively spent hundreds of billions of naira annually servicing aircraft overseas, a drain on scarce foreign exchange reserves. Air Peace alone spent more than N180 billion on offshore maintenance in 2024, according to Onyema.
“The establishment of this facility will substantially reduce our dependence on foreign MRO centres, conserve foreign exchange, and create a magnet for international investment into Nigeria’s aviation industry. It is not just a win for Air Peace, but a win for the Nigerian economy,” he said.
The airline’s push reflects long-running frustrations among carriers across Africa, which often face high costs and long downtimes flying aircraft to Europe, the Middle East or Asia for heavy maintenance checks. Nigeria, despite being the continent’s most populous nation and home to one of its largest domestic air travel markets, has for long, lacked a world-class MRO facility.
Aviation minister Festus Keyamo described the project as a national treasure, urging broad support to ensure its success. “Today is not just about Air Peace. This facility will serve the entire nation, saving our airlines and our economy billions each year. Supporting local airlines is not optional, it is essential,” he said.
The initiative has also drawn backing from Nigeria’s Bank of Industry, whose executive director for large enterprises, Ifeoma Uz’Okpala, called the project a perfect fit with the bank’s development mandate. She argued that localised MRO services would improve airline efficiency and profitability, while creating wider economic spillovers.
Nigeria’s aviation industry has been squeezed by rising operating costs, currency volatility, and difficulties in repatriating revenues by foreign airlines. According to analysts, creating domestic maintenance capacity could relieve one of the industry’s most persistent cost pressures while positioning Nigeria as a regional hub.
Air Peace, founded in 2013, has grown rapidly to dominate Nigeria’s domestic market and expand into regional and international routes. The company has positioned the MRO facility as a cornerstone of its long-term growth strategy and as evidence of its commitment to developing Nigeria’s aviation ecosystem.
