Reps demand increased revenue allocation for airspace management

House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has called for more capital to improve the management of the country’s airspace.

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Nnolim Nnaji, chairman of the committee, said the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency had many ongoing projects to improve navigation and needed more funding.

Nnolim made this known on Wednesday during an oversight visit and inspection of navigational aids at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

“Right now we are having a lot of challenges and difficulties on our roads and a lot of people prefer to travel by air and it is not the time we should toy with our air services.

“This is the time for everybody to come together to see how we can support the air industry that is the thing that is available now.

“We know NAMA has a lot of ongoing projects and is critical to the industry and we are open to supporting the agency from the legislative point of view. We will push for more budgetary allocation to support NAMA projects.”

Nnaji also stated that there was a need to amend the NAMA Act, saying that it would help the agency to conform to modern standards and practices.

He said, “We notice the manual operations in the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria when we got to the control tower, we also saw the digital aspect of it. It is highly commendable that we have such equipment on the ground.

“But we also believe that with government support, those facilities need to be upgraded, other airports across the country need to follow suit, not just Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt. When budget implementation of 2020 will commence, those issues he mentioned will be taken into consideration.”

He said the aviation bills sent to the House of Representatives by President Muhammadu Buhari would soon be called for hearing to ensure speedy assent.

Fola Akinkuotu, managing director of NAMA, urged the committee to look into some of the agency’s challenges by enabling laws that would improve safety.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

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.