The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has cautioned that increasing the portion of its revenue shared with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency could weaken aviation safety oversight and negatively affect Nigeria’s performance in future audits by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
The NCAA’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, said the regulator strongly opposed any proposal to further cut its funding, stressing that the agency was already operating below the funding level recommended by ICAO.
“Meetings have been called because it became clear that the NCAA was ready to fight over the matter. The CAA’s position remains the same. You cannot fix NAMA by destroying NCAA. And nowhere in the world does NAMA take money from the regulatory agency. In any case, if you take NCAA’s money now, we are going to fail the ICAO audit,” he stated.
A bill before the National Assembly proposes a review of the revenue-sharing formula for the statutory five per cent Ticket Sales Charge and Cargo Sales Charge collected from airline passengers and cargo operators.
Under the existing arrangement, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority receives 56 per cent of the revenue, while the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency is allocated 22 per cent. The remaining share is distributed among the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, and the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau.
The proposed amendment would cut the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s share of the revenue from 56 per cent to 40 per cent, while increasing the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency’s allocation from 22 per cent to 40 per cent.
The proposal has drawn strong opposition from the NCAA, which argues that the reduction in its funding could weaken aviation safety oversight and undermine Nigeria’s compliance with International Civil Aviation Organisation standards.
Achimugu maintained that the NCAA was already operating with inadequate funding, warning that any further reduction in its revenue would have serious consequences for the agency’s ability to effectively oversee aviation safety.
“Because, as it stands presently, the NCAA is underfunded. So, taking even more from me would put safety at risk, and we will fail the safety audit. Because the last audit that we passed had a very high score.
“The area we failed the most was still the funding. They stated that the NCAA is underfunded. That was one of the areas where we had low scores. We were only able to make up for it with very high scores, excellent scores in other areas. So how do you still want to come and take more? We could even face penalties from ICAO if that is done,” Achimugu added.
He argued that the NAMA should pursue alternative sources of funding instead of depending on a larger share of the regulatory revenue allocated.
“NAMA has to find a better way. In any case, they were set up to generate revenue to take care of themselves. They were never supposed to even get anything from the NCAA from the beginning.
“It’s just that when they were set up, there used to be a unit that was underfunded before. So when they were set up as an NCAA, there was no take-off grant for them, no cash. They just told them, okay, take this percentage from the NCAA by way of a take-off grant.
“They got used to it and now want to keep taking more and more and more. We are saying, no, it should not be like this. If we do this, then you are going to put safety at risk in Nigeria.
“And this is no joke. And that’s exactly what will happen if anybody proceeds with that idea.”
