Serving warmed food to Nigerians no longer acceptable, Keyamo tells foreign airlines
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has told foreign airlines that Nigeria will no longer accept the practice of serving its citizens warmed food aboard their flights.
The Minister made this known in a statement on his X account on Tuesday, wherein he clarified his earlier directive, instructing foreign airlines on outbound flights to patronise local caterers.
He explained that the instruction doesn’t automatically translate to serving local dishes aboard outbound flights as being misconstrued on social media.
However, he emphasised that the age-long practice of foreign airlines bringing meals from their originating countries, storing them in refrigerators and warming them to serve Nigerian passengers on outbound flights is no longer acceptable.
Keyamo insisted that the change of this practice is necessary to boost Nigeria’s economy through the support for local businesses.
“This is to clarify that directing foreign airlines on outbound flights to patronise our local caterers is not the same as instructing them to serve local dishes. Our local caterers can also prepare continental dishes or any meals as per the airlines’ specifications.
“The age-old practice of bringing frozen meals from their countries and then warming and serving them on outbound flights, predominantly to our own citizens, is no longer acceptable,” he wrote.
Keyamo assures foreign airlines of food safety
To allay the foreign airlines’ fears over food safety concerns, Keyamo assured them that Nigeria has quality control agencies capable of ensuring the hygiene and safety of the meals prepared by local caterers.
“If they expect us to trust the quality of food they bring into our country to serve our citizens, then they should also trust the process we have for vetting meals prepared by our local caterers,” he declared while stating the need for mutual trust.
Emphasising the significance of supporting local businesses, the minister added “The bottom line is that we must support our local businesses with our huge population and traffic, but other caterers from other climes should not benefit from what should essentially be to the benefit of our local economy.”
