Nigeria’s travel agencies lose an estimated N1 billion yearly to Airline Debit Memos (ADMs) imposed by foreign carriers, an investigation by our correspondent has revealed.
Indeed, the National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA) accused some of the foreign airlines of “weaponising punishment” and threatened to report the carriers to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) for anti-competition practice.
Investigation revealed that some of the travel agencies were billed between N2 million and N200 million for ADMs for a single transaction by a particular airline, while others are equally billed between $100,000 and $300,000 for the same offence, reports The Guardian.
NANTA has over 6,000 registered members nationwide, who are spread across the states of the federation.
ADM is a billing pool used by airlines to recover money from travel agents when they believe a ticket or boarding was issued incorrectly or rules were violated.
The investigation further revealed that African carriers, especially East African airlines, are most culpable in this practice.
It was also gathered that many travel agencies had closed shop because of this practice, as many could not afford the penalty, while a few others struggled to remain in business under the heavy sanction.
So far this year, no fewer than 20 travel agencies have been issued ADM billing by some of the airlines, with the majority protesting the decision.
Besides, a letter addressed to the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, dated November 2025, with the heading, ‘Industry Issues,’ and sighted by The Guardian, mentioned ADMs as some of the challenges facing the sub-sector.
A source close to one of the agencies told our correspondent that NANTA had tried to engage some of the foreign airlines to resolve the issue, but failed to achieve any success.
The source said: “As agencies, we have tried to engage them, but they claimed that they pay Global Distribution System (GDS) and we have told them to stop paying on reservations but pay GDS on flown segments or ticketed segments.
“Our loss to this ADM in 2025 was over N1 billion. Some agencies were sanctioned between N5 million and N200 million by some of the airlines. One of the agencies was sanctioned over N50 million by some of the foreign airlines.
“We were in a meeting with one of the GDS owners in Nigeria. He said he was ready to accept payment to GDS based on ticketing. It was learnt that the airlines pay them for making bookings, but one of the GDS owners in Nigeria has agreed on ticketed tickets. If we can do that, it will reduce the ADM bill drastically.”
Also, the President of NANTA, Dr Yinka Folami, in an interview with The Guardian in Lagos, confirmed the loss of N1 billion by his members as ADM billing in 2025.
He also expressed that NANTA escalated the issue with the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development and the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) in the last quarter of 2025.
Folami threatened that if the airlines did not stop the “arbitrary billings,” NANTA would not hesitate to drag the operators to the FCCPC for investigation.
He regretted that the practice was crippling businesses and threatening jobs across the sub-sector.
