Economic activities in the ancient city of Benin, the Edo State capital have received a boost following the commissioning of Category II Instrument Landing System (ILS) at the Benin airport recently installed by the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA).
Making this revelation at a town hall meeting with staff at the agency’s headquarters annex in Ikeja Lagos, Fola Akinkuotu, the managing director of NAMA, said this was in line with an earlier pledge by the agency to upgrade navigational infrastructure in strategic airports across the country in a bid to boost socio-economic activities in such areas.
Akinkuotu also announced that the agency has equally installed and commissioned the ILS at Port Harcourt airport which was damaged by an aircraft last year, saying that the flight commissioning which was handled by Omni-Blue Aviation Ltd indicated that the newly installed landing aids were operating at optimal capacity.
He also hinted that in the same vein, installation of CAT II ILS would commence at Maiduguri, Jos and Minna airports in the northern parts of the country.
Akinkuotu informed staff that in line with management’s objective to maintain a healthy and productive workforce, the agency had concluded plans to enrol NAMA into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the next two months just as he assured them that the contentious issue of review of Condition of Service (COS) was being handled and would soon be concluded by government.
The NAMA boss expressed gratitude to management and staff of the agency for the support and cooperation accorded him over the past two years of his ascendancy as managing director, saying that whatever successes his administration has recorded could not have been without the individual and collective effort of NAMA workers.
While cautioning staff to desist from frivolous expenses, he enjoined them to “put in more effort to move NAMA to the next level,” stressing that the agency would recognize hard work by giving special awards to deserving members of staff.
