ICAO, NCAA commence certification of Lagos, Abuja airports

International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), in conjunction with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), has commenced the implementation of the AFI Plan Aerodrome Certification Project for Abuja and Lagos airports.

This was disclosed by Muhtar Usman, director-general, NCAA, while addressing his counterparts from the ICAO Western and Central African (WACAF) during the pre–certification meeting at the NCAA office in Lagos.

Mam Sait Jallow, regional director of ICAO WACAF, the team leader, who was accompanied by the regional officer, Nika Manzi, said the objective of this mission was to follow up on the AFI Plan Certification project and assist Nigeria with technical guidance towards the certification process.

According to Jallow, two airports were selected from Nigeria for AFI Plan Aerodrome certification project while one airport was selected from other states in the AFI Region.
The two airports are Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. These two airports were chosen due to the volume of traffic in Nigeria. Nigeria has the largest passenger traffic in the Africa.

The AFI Plan was adopted by the 36th ICAO Assembly to address the safety status of aircraft operations in the AFI region. This plan is meant to address three focal areas which are: to establish and maintain a sustainable oversight system (infrastructure/capacity building); assist states to resolve identified deficiencies within reasonable time; and to enhance aviation safety culture of African aviation service providers.

The ICAO WACAF signed a memorandum of understanding with NCAA and FAAN as participants in the ICAO AFI Plan Project in Dakar, Senegal on 11th August 2016.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Usman affirmed that this project is crucial to global aviation as regards safety and security of the airport environment.

He said the aerodrome certification is in line with the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs). The Nigerian Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) and all the necessary instrumentation for the process are already in place.

He further stated that the Aerodrome Certification process in Nigeria was carried out in five phases. At present, the ongoing certification of MMIA and Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport have reached phases three and two, respectively.

Usman added that the authority has trained technical personnel who are very competent to handle the challenges that may be encountered during the certification exercise.

In his response, Jallow said “the ICAO WACAF meets twice a year and their next meeting is scheduled for May 2017; therefore, all hands must be on deck to achieve a successful certification and present the report during the meeting.”