The Joint Action Committee  representing all major internal unions within the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has officially urged the National Assembly (NASS) to fully commercialise or privatise the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).

The aviation labor coalition argues that transforming the country’s airspace manager into an independent, corporate entity is the most viable path to funding critical aviation infrastructure without bankrupting the nation’s primary safety watchdog.

The joint memo was co-signed by the branch secretaries of the sector’s four primary labor bodies: Obasi Ugwumba of the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ATSSSAN),  Salami  Adeniyi of the Association of Nigerian Aviation Professionals (ANAP), Comrade Omaga Joshua of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), and Comrade Celestine N. Chukwu of the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE).

The call functions as an aggressive counter-proposal to a controversial bill currently before lawmakers. The draft legislation seeks to slice the NCAA’s statutory share of the five percent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) and Cargo Sales Charge (CSC) from 56 percent down to 40 percent—representing a severe 16 percent resource deficit—while boosting NAMA’s allocation from 22 percent to 40 percent. The unions contend that siphoning regulatory funds to paper over NAMA’s structural funding issues is a dangerous policy misstep.

The NCAA unions maintain that NAMA’s persistent funding shortages and reliance on the public treasury leave Nigeria’s airspace vulnerable. Under its current structure, critical technology updates are frequently delayed by bureaucratic red tape, national budget debates, and shifting political priorities.

By fully privatising NAMA or transitioning it into a robust Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, the agency would gain direct access to private equity, international bonds, and capital markets.

This financial flexibility is urgently required to deploy critical infrastructure, such as satellite-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) systems, alongside modern backup navigation installations.

The Joint Action Committee  emphasised to lawmakers that the world’s most advanced and reliable Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) already operate successfully outside of state treasury dependency on an aggressive “user-pays” system:

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Nav Canada: A private, non-share capital corporation that is 100 percent self-funding.

NATS Holdings (UK): Successfully run via an agile Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework.

Airways New Zealand: Functions entirely as a commercialized State-Owned Enterprise, financing continuous technological expansion from its own operational returns.

Citing NAMA’s own 2024 Government-Owned Enterprises budget proposal, the Joint Action Committee  pointed out that the agency’s primary revenue streams are already dominated by heavy, often dollar-denominated sources: en-route charges, overflight charges, and various non-navigational billings.

The Joint Action Committee  raised sharp questions regarding a lack of financial transparency, demanding full public disclosure of all revenues harvested from airspace violation fines and Extension of Service Hours Charges—the premium fees paid by airlines when NAMA extends navigation services past standard airport operational hours. The unions argue that fully accounting for these streams would erase any perceived need to pillage the NCAA’s regulatory funding.

For the union leadership, the legislative debate is fundamentally about preserving the sacred institutional boundary between a commercial utility provider and the sovereign safety watchdog.

“We believe aviation safety thrives on clear institutional boundaries,” the Joint Action Committee  stated. “Under a commercialised or privatised framework, NAMA would focus exclusively on the efficient and safe management of airspace, while the NCAA remains an independent, government-backed regulator responsible for strict safety audits and enforcement in accordance with the Civil Aviation Act and ICAO Standards.”

The coalition warns that allowing a commercial entity like NAMA to poach funds designated to guarantee the financial autonomy of the safety regulator creates an immediate conflict of interest.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.

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