Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has told operators of non-scheduled flights in Nigeria that there is no going back on the Federal Government cashless policy.
NAMA, while holding a sensitisation forum with agents and representatives of operators of non-scheduled flights in Nigeria on the imperative of Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime of the Buhari administration, reiterated on the need for airlines to ensure total compliance with the presidential directive on the implementation of the TSA.
The event, which took place at NAMA headquarters in Lagos at the weekend, is targeted among other things at dialoguing with operators and fashioning out ways to address their concerns arising from the process of adjusting to the new cashless payment system since it came into operations last year.
In his remarks, Fola Akinkuotu, managing director of NAMA, said there was no going back on the government cashless policy and that it was an executive pronouncement that demanded total compliance from all stakeholders.
Akinkuotu appealed to the non-scheduled operators to “embrace the new initiative as the entire world is going cashless,” assuring them that the new system would yield positive results that would benefit the entire industry.
“This is an innovation that would not only improve and sanitise the nation’s financial system but also ensure accountability and transparency in the long run. If we desire an aviation industry that is globally competitive, we have to imbibe global best practices,” Akinkuotu said.
He added that the associated risk and needless exposure associated with the old system of carrying cash around had ensured that it was no longer fashionable.
Explaining further, the NAMA helmsman said as contained in the directive, all financial transactions with the agency must be done through monetary transfers (only) into the NAMA TSA account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), stressing that the era of paying cash to deposit money banks for onward delivery to the CBN had become history.
Speaking on behalf of the non-scheduled operators in attendance, Sunny Ebisue, managing director of Sunrise International Air Support Limited, expressed gratitude to NAMA for organising such a forum, saying the event had shed more light on some of the grey areas of the new payment system.
He however called on the agency to sustain such interaction with operators in order to keep them abreast with new developments.
As part of the resolutions made at the end of the meeting, operators or their representatives are to each open and fund a domiciliary account with which to effect all financial transactions with NAMA through monetary transfers to the agency’s sub-account with the CBN using a smart phone.
On the other hand, a representative can open a domiciliary account, transfer an amount of foreign currency in advance into NAMA account at CBN to enable the agency debit that balance anytime the operator needs the agency’s services.
