Nigeria Ready for ICAO Safety Audit of Aviation Industry

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, (NCAA) said it has put everything in place for the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) slated for the first quarter of 2022.

The Authority said Nigeria was fully prepared for the exercise, known as Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA), which includes ensuring that the country abides by the global body’s recommended standard practices, having adequate technical personnel and efficiently regulating the industry to ensure high standard of air safety.

Speaking during the opening ceremony of the League of Aviation and Airport Correspondents (LAAC) training at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria on Monday, the Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu said Nigeria had sustained a regime of robust regulations and over eight year of zero accident in commercial flight operation.

Nuhu who said Nigeria was primed to excel by maintaining and improving on the reputation already achieved in the area of air safety, appealed to all stakeholders, including the media to join hands with NCAA to ensure a successful audit.

“From now on, all your reports are very sensitive. Let us eschew sensationalism capable of putting the nation in bad light. Therefore, I will advise anyone to endeavour to verify and confirm his/her stories before publishing, if in doubt. It is my view that your watchdog role plays a very important part in fostering stability in the industry.

“These balancing, developmental and promotional stories are the hallmark of a burgeoning aviation industry like ours. Let us present our aviation industry as the most improved that it is. “There is no doubt that there is increased confidence in the sector as new airlines are coming in and existing operators are expanding their routes.

“Expectedly, our coast of surveillance programme and other oversight responsibilities as the regulator of the industry have increased correspondingly,” he explained.

He noted that continuous human capacity development was one of NCAA’s administration core values, adding that the regulatory authority considers training (including initial, on-the-job and recurrent training) as a key component of aviation development in Nigeria.

“Training and retraining is a capital project for us as it is critical to our operations as the country’s apex regulatory authority for civil aviation in Nigeria. Our personnel are exposed to appropriate trainings all over the world so as to maintain and enhance their competence,” he added.

Chinedu Eze

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