Med-View Airline, one of Nigeria’s domestic carriers, has listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) offering N9.75 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N1.50 per share, representing an initial capital of N14.63 billion.

Through this initial public offering (IPO), the carrier aims to increase its annual revenue which is currently at N26 billion, which is expected to reach N58.5billion by 2020, and have access to the necessary capital inflow to run more efficiently and improve investors’ confidence.

According to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Med-View Airline, Muneer Bankole, Med-View’s decision to go public aims to make the company a national airline.

“Going public is one of the litmus tests to show that we are here for you. With efforts of some of my colleagues at the defunct Nigerian Airways, we started this airline with nothing. But from N3.6billion revenue in the first year, we have grown to N26billion in 2016. First Bank supported us and we are grateful,” he told the Guardian.

Meanwhile, NSE’s CEO, Oscar Onyema, has said that regardless of the challenges faced by the aviation sector, the industry in Africa and Nigeria remains quite viable.

He noted that the sector in Nigeria currently generates 255,000 jobs with a $1billion contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually. Onyema, commenting Med-View’s IPO, further added that their decision was spurred by the actual difficult economy and policy issues.

Anita Fatunji