The anticipated unity in Africa’s air transport market will take centre stage as respected minds in African aviation gather in Lagos for the 2026 SAPTCO Annual Lecture.
Specifically, the lecture will focus on the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) among other strategic topics.
This year’s lecture will be delivered by the former Secretary General of Africa Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), Ms. Iyabo Sosina, who was instrumental to the launching of the project during her tenure in the August body.
A statement by SAPTCO Managing Consultant, Mr. Sam Adurogoboye, said the gathering promise to be a watershed event to brainstorm on a subject that does not seem to have lived up to its billing.
The lecture according to him will also doubles as a training programme, is scheduled to hold on November 5, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA) Training Suite, Annex, Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos.
The statement informed that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development,Mr. Festus Keyamo, will be a Special Guest of Honour while the Director General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority(NCAA), Capt. Chris Najomo will be a Guest of Honour at the lecture.
Other distinguished guests and stakeholders will be from airlines, Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) aviation agencies, as well as the aviation media practitioners.
The former Director General of the NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren, who delivered the inaugural SAPTCO Lecture last year, is also expected to attend as the Father of the Day.
According to Adurogoboye, this year’s lecture would help to redirect African Leaders attention to the goals of SAATM which includes : Open Skies policy, traffic freedoms and the long standing 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision.
Launched in January 2018, SAATM is an African Union(AU) project designed to create a single, unified civil aviation market across Africa.
Adurogoboye explained that the initiative works to open up the continent’s skies, lower air fares, and increase intra African trave and trade as well as serve as a major building block for the broader African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
“Unfortunately, this laudable programme is yet to be translated into reality years after it was conceptualized and launched, expressing the hope that with the Lecture as a catalyst, ” effective implementation of the Single African Air Transport Market [SAATM] would lead to better connectivity, economic growth and lower costs of operations and many more benefits to the continent of African”. the SAPTCO Managing Consultant said.
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