The Deputy Secretary General (Planning and Infrastructure) of the East African Community (EAC), Alloys Mutabingwa, has reiterated the need for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) if Africa is to ever increase its capital mobilization base in maintaining the aviation industry.

Mutabingwa made the remarks recently during a presentation he made at a one-week continental aviation conference held in Cape Town, South Africa.

In the paper, ‘Aviation Trends, Investor opportunities and development model for Africa- the East African Community Case,’ Mutabingwa called on regional economic blocs to develop investment policies that mitigate airlines’ operating costs.

"Public-Private Partnerships have proved to be the easiest approach towards capital mobilization whereby Governments inject share capital that may be sold to the private sector when the business has matured,” he said.
As a solution to making the African airline industry more competitive, the EAC official called for granting concessions towards the construction, development and maintenance of the airline industry.

With a population of 130 million people and a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $ 70 billion, the EAC has already put in place measures geared towards creating an enabling environment for private sector investment in the aviation industry.

Mutabingwa said that there are three important measures the bloc has taken to achieving this; liberalization of air transport, improvement of air transport safety and security oversight; and mitigation of operating costs.

Participants at the meeting highlighted that government policy in Africa influence operating costs through taxation and investment policies. 

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