Ethiopian Airlines cannot get cash out from some African states

State-owned Ethiopian Airlines is unable to repatriate about $220 million held in local currency in Nigeria, Egypt and some other African states because of foreign exchange shortages in those nations, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday.
The airline chief executive also said the U.S. President Donald Trump's order temporarily halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority states was creating confusion for some of its passengers.
Tewolde Gebremariam told Reuters that its inability to repatriate funds from some of the countries the company operated from was partly because countries such as Nigeria had been hit by recent falls in oil prices, which was reducing foreign exchange inflows.
This also meant cash held in the local currencies was losing value, he said.
"This is a huge challenge for us," the CEO added.
Gebremariam however, said the travel ban on by the US government "was not having much impact overall on its operations."
He said the airline's revenues were up 10.3 percent at 54.5 billion birr ($2.43 billion) in the 2015/16 fiscal year, while passenger numbers rose 18 percent to 7.6 million.
© Reuters News