In its determination to make vacation and other forms of
travel pleasant, affordable and easy, Skye Bank Plc has gone into partnership
with some leading travel agencies by providing travel financing.
At the unveiling of the partnership in Lagos on Friday, Skye
Bank’s Head of Retail Banking Group, Nkolika Okoli said the bank would provide
financing for the customers to be able to buy their tickets and/or travel
packages in good time to enjoy reduced fares.
According to her, the bank would provide 80 per cent of the
travel cost while the intending traveller will provide just 20 per cent of the
total travel cost at a minimal interest rate. The customer can they repay the
loan over a maximum tenor of 12 months.
Explaining the rationale for the special partnership, Okoli
said because most people who travel in Nigeria are salary earners and small
business owners in the middle income segment, they are wont to save up for
their travel over a long period of time so end up buying their tickets two or
three weeks to the date of travel.
“What this means is that they buy their tickets at a high price. But if you buy your ticket three or four months before your travel date, you may probably save 50 or 60 per cent of what the person who buys two weeks to his travel pays”, she said.
Okoli said the new partnership would enable travellers to get the best package, saying the essence of the new financing package is to encourage travellers to buy their tickets early enough to take advantage of low fare.
She noted that the existing practise where travel agencies
sell tickets on credit and use their money to pay airlines is capable of
eroding their capital and affect their operations since their margins are
usually small.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Managing Director of Dees
Travels and Tours Limited, one of the partners, Mr. Daisi Olotu, commended Skye
Bank for the innovative arrangement which has taken away from the agencies the
risk of customer indebtedness over ticket.
Olotu said while the travel agencies must remit the ticket fares to the airlines within 14 days, travellers often buy ticket on credit and may not pay immediately, noting that Skye Bank has solved the agencies’ major problem.
Also speaking, the Chief Operating Officer of Ajala.ng,
Omolua Nwoke said Skye Bank had taken away their major burden by making it
possible for travellers to be able to travel and pay with convenience.
The General Manager of Tour Brokers International, Odion
Chigbufue, said the arrangement with Skye Bank enables her company to pay the
airlines and their ground handlers without running the risk of clients default
in paying for ticket
An executive of Pasture Travels and Tours Limited, Funke
Yerokun, commended the bank for the initiative, describing it as the much
needed solution to the problem besseting the travel and tours industry. Yerokun
said it would help agencies to overcome their cash flow problems.
Okoli ended the briefing by calling on other travel agents
to join the partnership to reduce the pressure placed on their cashflow by
credit sales as this will have a direct positive effect on their trading
margins through reduced cost of funds
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