E-clearance of flights will save time, money – minister

Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, has commended the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) for the introduction of the e-clearance solution for the clearance of aircraft, which he said would save time and make the process seamless.

The transport minister in company of Hadi Sirika, the aviation minister, stated that he was impressed with what he saw, adding that with the introduction of the e-clearance agents could manage their time very well.

According to him, “The introduction of e-clearance means you have to manage your time because time is money.”

Amaechi, who made the commendation during the official visit to NCAA Tuesday at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, said the introduction of e-clearance would put an end to the era where aircraft were cleared manually, a situation he said consumed time and brought about delays at airports.

Earlier, Muhtar Usman, director-general of NCAA, stated that the aviation community was happy hosting the two ministers and that NCAA under his leadership was committed to supporting the vision of the new administration and ensuring that the vision was implemented in the most efficient and effective manner for the collective benefit of passengers, the government and people of Nigeria.

As regulators of the sector that is benchmarked internationally and progress at speed, the impact of innovations in technology requires amendments to regulations from time to time to bring them in compliance with changes in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standards and recommended practices (SARPS), he said.

NCAA, he stated, had been in the process of making such amendment to its regulations, which NCAA was proud to say had been concluded.

According to him, “NCAA Act 2006 is also in need of amendment to reflect changes in the sector. Much work has been done in this regard and what is required is for the Federal Executive Council to look at it and if approved, forward same to the National Assembly.”

On the e-clearance solution introduced by the regulators for the clearance of aircraft, the NCAA boss explained that it was necessitated by the need to use technology to improve flight clearance in line with international practice.

He added that in the past, flights were processed manually, adding that the achievement was in collaboration with NAMA and security agencies involved in the process.

To him, “the need to deploy technology in improving the services we render in the sector to our customers necessitated innovation in the manner we conducted our flight clearance. Over time, we have processed flight clearance manually, a process that has not been very effective.

“Alive to our responsibilities, working with the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), the security agencies involved in the process, we have developed an electronic clearance system to address the problem.”

Usman further explained that the e-clearance system could identify all incoming flights and record them in real time using their tail number as well as recording the time they depart the Nigerian airspace.

He stated that with the use of this system, every airplane within Nigeria’s airspace could be accounted for at every given time, and that this information was shared electronically with all the relevant agencies involved in the clearance process.