The Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and domestic airline operators in the country has reached agreement to reconcile debts owe the agency by the airlines and set a template for their repayment.
NCAA said the repayment plan agreed by both parties would be favourable to all.
Director General of the NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu told a visiting team of members of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation that that the agency will between now and 2024, develop all its regional offices and provide adequate training and manpower to ensure it provides its services in all nook and cranny of the country.
Whilst he told the lawmakers some of the immediate needs of NCAA, Nuhu said “We are empowering five regional offices to ensure the job in smaller areas gets done and they do not have to refer to Lagos or Abuja. It brings regulation closer to the operators outside Lagos and Abuja opening more regional offices in the far reaches of the country.”
” Already Port Harcourt takes care of the south East and south-south we are looking at opening
a regional office in Enugu for the South East. We are looking at another one in either Maiduguri or Yola for the North East, Ilorin for the middle-belt and Uyo or Calabar for the South-South.
The DG also explained that training for the inspectors and other regulatory staff are key to the agency and that the NCAA was competing for manpower especially pilots and engineers with airlines that pay better . Captain Nuhu however said it was key because these inspectors with the CAA needed more training to be better or r par with the trends in the industry so they an do their job better and that the only way to retain these pilots and engineers was to make the remuneration nearly at par with the airlines to keep them.
Reacting, the Chairman House Committee on Aviation,Honourable Nnaji Nnaji said the House was on its oversight function and would look at what the NCAA has done and intends to do with what as been allocated and would be NCAA has done and intends to do with what as been allocated and would be allocated to them.
