Chinedu Eze
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) are at daggers drawn over the proposed sharing formula on accruals from the 5 per cent ticket sales charge (TSC) and cargo sales charge (CSC), which run into billions of naira annually.
The National Assembly is currently considering a bill that proposes a major review of the revenue-sharing formula, which is five per cent of the cost of every ticket sold by domestic airlines.
The proposed bill by the National Assembly seeks to reduce the cumulative of what accrues to NCAA from 56 per cent to 40 per cent and increase NAMA’s allocation from 22 per cent to 40 per cent, a development that has unsettled the two agencies of government, causing a rift between them.
From the current sharing formula, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) gets 56 per cent; Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) gets 22 per cent; Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) gets 9 per cent; Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria gets five per cent and Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) gets eight per cent on the accruals from the five per cent TSC and CSC charges.
The NCAA oversees the collection and disbursement of the funds, but the National Assembly is considering a new sharing formula, which is the major reason for the clash between the two agencies.
The disagreement has given rise to media brickbats with NCAA saying that if its own share of the funds is reduced from 56 per cent to 40 per cent it will severely affect its operations and may lead to infringement on air safety.
On Tuesday, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority warned that any move to reduce its statutory revenue could undermine aviation safety by weakening its capacity to carry out effective regulatory oversight.
Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at NCAA, Mr. Michael Achimugu, gave the warning during a chat with journalists in Abuja
The Director warned that such a move, if actualised, could weaken the authority’s financial position and would make it unable to meet its regulatory oversight.
He reiterated that safety could be compromised and all travellers, regardless of status, would be at grave risk.
Achimugu said: “The NCAA even requires more money. Let’s not forget that the federal government makes deductions from what even comes to the NCAA, in the first place. Any way you look at it, this move by a revenue-generating agency to cut even more into the NCAA’s cost recovery is a very unnecessary move. The reason planes are not falling from the sky today under this administration, unlike in the past, is because of the NCAA.”
He added: “The staff of the regulatory agency must be better trained than the service providers they regulate. If inspectors do not possess superior technical knowledge, they cannot effectively enforce safety standards.”
He credited NCAA’s regulatory oversight for Nigeria’s strong performance in international aviation safety and security audits, as well as improvements in passenger rights protection.
“The reason Nigeria continues to excel in safety and security audits is because of the NCAA. The reason passengers’ rights are better protected today is because of the NCAA,” Achimugu further said.
He called on stakeholders to carefully consider the implications of reducing NCAA’s financial capacity, saying aviation regulators across the world are adequately funded because of the critical role they play in safeguarding lives.
He maintained that rather than seeking a larger share of NCAA’s statutory allocation, agencies with independent revenue-generating mandates should focus on their own funding streams.
Last week anonymous article attributed to NAMA insider argued that the financial realities confronting NAMA today bear little resemblance to those existing when the present revenue-sharing formula was conceived.
“Since then, aviation technology has advanced dramatically. Satellite-based navigation, digital communications, surveillance technologies, automation systems, cybersecurity requirements and performance-based navigation have transformed global air traffic management. Keeping pace with these developments is no longer optional. It is a fundamental requirement imposed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and expected by airlines operating within international airspace.
“Every delay in modernising critical infrastructure widens the technological gap between Nigeria and the world’s leading aviation systems. Perhaps nowhere is this challenge more evident than in the agency’s responsibility for maintaining Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) facilities across the federation.
“These installations are dispersed nationwide, often in remote locations where access is difficult and public utilities are unreliable. Instrument Landing Systems (ILS), Doppler Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range (DVOR), Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), radar installations, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) facilities, Very High Frequency (VHF) communication stations and other critical navigation infrastructure require continuous technical maintenance to remain serviceable. Maintaining these facilities comes at enormous cost,” the insider from the agency stated.
The clash between the two agencies moved to the aviation unions, as the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), NCAA Branch, had issued a warning to the National Assembly and federal policymakers, stating that a proposed legislative bill to slash the funding of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, represents a dangerous gamble with the lives of millions of air travellers.
Using safety appeal, accompanied by mild threat, the NCAA branch of NAAPE in a joint memorandum co-signed by the Branch Chairman, Diepreye Stephen Saburugha and the Branch Secretary, Celestine Nkemakolam Chukwu, condemned the bill currently before the lawmakers.
According to NAAPE, NCAA branch, treating this as a routine fiscal redistribution of revenue among sister parastatals is a critical error.
They warned that starving the apex regulator of its financial lifeblood would threaten its core regulatory independence, cripple active field surveillance, and expose the nation’s airspace to systemic safety risks reminiscent of the country’s dark history of air disasters.
They emphasised that the rules, safety barriers, and oversight frameworks protecting passengers today were built on painful institutional memory. Noting that Nigeria’s contemporary safety record did not emerge by accident; it was forged through hard-won reforms enacted after avoidable tragedies.
“The crash of Bellview Airlines Flight 210 in 2005, which claimed 117 lives, sent shockwaves across the country and exposed serious concerns about safety oversight within the aviation system. Barely months later, the ADC Airlines Flight 53 crash claimed 96 lives… Years later, the tragic crash of Dana Air Flight 992 in Lagos again reminded Nigerians that when safety barriers fail, the consequences can be catastrophic,” the statement noted.
But the national leadership of NAAPE, however disagreed with the NCAA branch, insisting that the national union is not against the reduction of the regulatory share of the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge accruals.
In a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of the national body, Blessing Ahmadu, NAAPE said the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers has disowned a statement opposing the proposed reduction in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s share of the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge, saying it neither originated from nor received the approval of the union’s National Executive Council.
The union said the position, attributed to NAAPE in recent media reports, was issued by officials of its NCAA Branch and should not be construed as the official position of the national body on the proposed amendment to the revenue-sharing formula for aviation agencies.
Also, Aviation unions made up of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), the Air Transport Service Senior Staff Association, the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) and the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals (ANAP) said that the time to commercialise or privatise the agency is now.
“By pitting one agency against the other, the good working condition between NCAA and NAMA could be impaired, which is not good for the industry, “the unions said.