Foreign airlines in Nigeria are frustrated by the blocking of their funds

International airlinesIATAKLM with bases in Nigeria are looking hopefully at the inauguration of Bola Tinubu as president on May 29th, since their fate may rest in his hands. They want the country’s new chief pilot to tell the central bank to let them have their cash. Of the $2.2bn in airlines’ blocked funds across the world, the wodge stuck in Nigeria, almost $800m, is the biggest, says the International Air Transport Association (). That figure has doubled since September. Nigerians are frequent flyers, thanks in part to their huge, helter-skelter diaspora, but, unless the bank acts fast, frustrated airlines may make it harder for any of them to get anywhere at all.Dwindling oil revenues, meagre exports and currency interventions have drained Nigeria’s foreign-exchange coffers. The central bank must decide how to parcel out scarce cash. Every fortnight or so it promises airlines a morsel of all the dollars their accumulated revenues in naira should equate to, at an exchange rate almost 50% less advantageous than its official one. Even then, it does not guarantee when the pledged money will arrive. , the Dutch carrier, which has been flying to Nigeria for 75 years, is waiting for funds promised in September. Emirates, fed up with waiting for an estimated $500m, pulled out last year, despite the popularity of its route.