The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has appealed to the National Assembly to increase its share of the statutory five per cent ticket, charter and cargo sales charge from 22 per cent to 56 per cent.

The Managing Director of NAMA, Farouk Umar, made the appeal at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation in Abuja on Thursday.

The hearing was on a bill for an act to amend the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency Establishment Act to revise the percentage of statutory charges accruing to the agency and other related matters.

It was also on a bill to amend the Civil Aviation Act to provide for the automated remittance of funds accruing to aviation agencies and to revise revenue sharing formula to reflect the remaining of the Accident Investigation Bureau and for other related matters.

In his remarks, Mr Umar said that the increment was critical to sustaining safe and efficient air navigation services across the country.

According to him, the agency’s current allocation no longer reflects the scale of its statutory responsibilities or the rising cost of maintaining Nigeria’s air navigation infrastructure.

Mr Umar explained that under the existing arrangement, NAMA effectively received only N11 from every N50 generated through the five per cent charge on a N1,000 ticket, charter or cargo sale.

He said that increasing NAMA’s share to 56 per cent would raise its allocation to N28 from the same N50 without imposing any additional financial burden on passengers.

“The five per cent charge itself will not increase. The amendment simply proposes a fairer distribution of the existing revenue to the infrastructure that guides aircraft safely,” he said.

The managing director noted that the agency’s 2023 expenditure profile exceeded N43 billion, covering personnel costs, capital projects and overheads required to sustain communication systems, navigation aids, surveillance platforms, power infrastructure, software, calibration and specialised training.

He said that while operational costs had risen significantly over the years, navigation charges had remained unchanged since 2008 despite inflation, foreign exchange fluctuations and increasing technology costs.

Mr Umar also highlighted the need for modernising the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) system, maintaining that ageing infrastructure required urgent renewal to ensure continued safety and operational efficiency.

He said that responsible airspace management required timely replacement of obsolete equipment, acquisition of modern technologies and continuous capacity building for technical personnel.

On obstacle evaluation, the NAMA boss argued that although the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) currently collected fees for Aviation Height Clearance Certificates, his organization carried out the technical assessments required to determine whether proposed structures could interfere with flight operations.

In his remarks, the Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Chris Najomo, said that the authority was not opposed to the strengthening of any aviation agency.

Mr Najomo expressed the belief that every aviation agency should be adequately funded to effectively discharge its statutory responsibilities.

He, however, said that if additional financial support was required for NAMA, it should first be pursued through the optimisation of its extensive statutory commercial revenue streams, improved operational efficiency and corporate governance.

The director-general said that where necessary, it should target government support for strategic capital infrastructure and international best practice.

“Our respectful submission is that this objective should be achieved in a manner that is consistent with international best practice and Nigeria’s obligations as a contracting state to the Chicago Convention.

“It is on this note that the NCAA respectfully requests that this honourable committee champion the return to the original vision that drove the establishment of the NCAA and NAMA in 1999. We submit that the NCAA’s allocation of the five per cent TSC be restored to 65 per cent to overcome the deficiencies identified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) at its last audit and bring Nigeria in line with global best funding practices.

“Aviation safety is not sustained by legislation alone. It depends upon competent inspectors, effective surveillance, continuous certification, recurrent technical training, international cooperation and an independent regulator possessing the financial capacity to discharge its statutory mandate without compromise,” Mr Najomo said.

Also speaking, the acting Vice-Chancellor of African Aviation and Aerospace University (AAAU), Mustapha Abdullahi, told the committee that the institution did not benefit from the fund.

Mr Abdullahi said that the safety of the aviation sector was dependent on available professionals manning the various units.

He appealed to the committee to include the university which produces the required professionals as a beneficiary of the fund.

Earlier, Chairman of the committee, Abdulahi Garba (APC-Niger), assured that the committee would carefully and objectively consider all submissions.

Mr Garba also promised that the committee would produce a report reflecting the House mandate and the best interests of stakeholders in the aviation sector.

(NAN)