Nigerian tycoon Taiwo Afolabi’s SAHCO wins Air Algérie deal

Skyway Aviation Handling Co., the Nigerian airport services company controlled by tycoon Taiwo Afolabi, has won the contract to handle Air Algérie flights at the two biggest airports in Nigeria, Murtala Muhammed International in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International in Abuja.

The deal covers full ground handling for the Algerian state carrier, from passenger check-in and baggage to ramp work and cargo. It extends an arrangement that began in April 2025, when SAHCO, as the company is known, signed on to handle Air Algérie’s twice-weekly flights between Algiers and Abuja. The airline is now adding Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, to the route. It started a weekly Algiers-Abuja-Lagos flight on Oct. 26 and plans a second weekly rotation, Algiers-Lagos-Abuja, from Oct. 29, both flown with Boeing 737-700 jets.

Afolabi, SAHCO’s chairman, said the company was delighted that Air Algérie had chosen it as its partner in both cities, and that the decision reflected SAHCO’s commitment to safety, operational efficiency and service excellence. SAHCO said it is the only ground handler present at every commercially operated airport in Nigeria. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

A growing client list

Air Algérie joins a roster of foreign carriers that SAHCO has added in the past three years. It took over Ethiopian Airlines’ cargo ramp handling in Lagos in January 2024, and signed Italian carrier NeosAir for its weekly Milan flight to Lagos later that year. Its 2025 additions included Air Tanzania and Air Algérie, wider work for Ethiopian, and Nigerian airlines ValueJet, United Nigeria Airlines and Air Peace, the last for its Caribbean flights.

The new business comes as SAHCO’s profit falls. Pretax profit dropped 41% to ₦5.83 billion ($4.3 million) in the six months to June, even as revenue rose 9.3% to ₦23.01 billion ($16.9 million). Direct costs jumped 63% to ₦10.75 billion, and administrative expenses rose 41%. Net income more than halved to ₦3.85 billion ($2.8 million) from ₦8.14 billion a year earlier.

That followed a record 2025, when revenue climbed 54% to ₦44.46 billion ($32.6 million). Passenger handling brought in ₦31.82 billion of that, and cargo the rest. SAHCO paid a dividend of ₦1.20 a share for the year, its largest, and Afolabi told shareholders at the June annual meeting that the company plans to expand into the United Arab Emirates and other African aviation hubs.

Stake tops $100 million

Afolabi holds 60.72% of SAHCO, or 822.37 million shares, through his own holdings and the SIFAX Group, the conglomerate he founded in 1988. SAHCO shares closed at ₦171.20 on the Nigerian Exchange on Wednesday, valuing his stake at ₦140.79 billion ($103.1 million). The stock has gained about 94% this year, giving SAHCO a market value of about ₦231.7 billion ($169.7 million).

The federal government sold SAHCO, then a former Nigeria Airways unit known as Skypower Aviation Handling Co., to SIFAX in 2009 as part of its privatization program. The company offered 49% of its shares to the public in a 2018 initial public offering ahead of its listing in Lagos.

Afolabi, 64, is a lawyer by training who worked at Nigerian Express Agencies before starting SIFAX. The group has since grown into one of Nigeria’s larger private conglomerates, with businesses in shipping and port terminals, aviation, haulage, hotels, financial services, and oil and gas.