Nigeria, June 17 -- The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has identified access to affordable financing and fleet renewal as the biggest challenges facing Africa's aviation industry, saying demand for air travel across the continent remains strong.

Mr Keyamo spoke on Tuesday at the sidelines of the inaugural African Air Transport Conference in Lome, Togo, where aviation stakeholders discussed ways to improve air connectivity and strengthen the sector across Africa.

"The real problem of Africa is fleet renewal, access to financing. That's the real problem of Africa," the minister said.

According to him, the continent's airlines are struggling to compete because they lack access to the low-cost financing avai...