Stories by Ime Akpan
Lagos
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has taken steps to strengthen processes and procedures towards effective revenue generation and collection at the various airports in the country.
The Managing Director of the agency, Mr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam who disclosed this in Lagos at a two-day interactive meeting of senior staff of accounts and commercial departments of NAMA tasked the workers to devise initiatives of improving the revenue base of the agency by streamlining expenditure and blocking leakages.
He said there was the need for a synergy between the two departments to thrive in the general interest of the agency.
He also urged the workers to employ their professional expertise to effectively review the revenue standard operating manual in order to meet industry best practices as well as enhance effective service delivery.”
“We all have to align all the agency’s operations to the fiscal policies of the present administration like the Treasury
Single Account (TSA) geared towards promoting transparency and accountability in the public sector,” he said.
Thereafter, he said the agency’s effort to implement Performance Based Navigation (PBN) in the country had received a major boost with the publication of PBN Area Navigation (RNAV) Approaches for 15 Nigerian Airports as well as the publication of Standard Arrival Routes (STARs) and Standard Instrument Departure Routes (SIDs) for Benin Airport.
The airports are those located in Benin, Calabar, Enugu, Ibadan, Ilorin, Owerri, Jos and Kaduna. Others are Maiduguri, Katsina, Minna, Sokoto, Zaria, Gombe and Bauchi.
The said publication enables duly equipped aircraft with necessary approval from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to fly PBN procedures into the airports without the use of ground navigational aids.
Abdulsalam who also announced that there was a plan to integrate Uyo, Asaba, Yola, Kebbi, Dutse, Akure Bebi and Osubi airports into the PBN network also noted that the implementation of PBN had become inevitable for it “is in
line with global migration from ground-based navigation to satellite-based navigation.
He said NAMA would leave no stone unturned in meeting the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirement for states to ensure full implementation of PBN at both local and international airports by 2016.
“Because of the increased level of accuracy, reliability, continuity, integrity of information, overall enhanced safety and attendant benefits to airlines and the travelling public, it has become imperative for Nigerian operators to key in to PBN. With direct routing and reduced flight times, PBN would enhance efficiency and reduce cost to the airlines,” he said.
It would be recalled that NAMA had, in 2012, published PBN/RNAV Approaches, Standard Instrument Departure Routes (SIDs) and Standard Arrival Routes (STARs) for four major airports in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Kano to make them PBN compliant.