By Ade Jacobs
Airline operators in the country have reached an agreement with the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), on how to pay back millions of naira owed the agency.
Captain Musa Nuhu, Director-General, NCAA, revealed this on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, when the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, visited the agency.
The Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, had stated last month that debts owed by Nigerian airlines to various government agencies in the last 10 years have reached over N22 billion.
The NCAA boss, however, stated that the airlines are going through difficult times due to the COVID 19 pandemic, adding that the agency has drawn up a payment plan that will be favourable to both parties.
He explained that NCAA is also trying to reduce the problems faced by the airlines, in the area of interfacing with the agency, as such, more offices are being created at region levels.
According to Nuhu, “We are empowering five regional offices to ensure the job in smaller areas gets done and they do not have to refer to Lagos or Abuja. It brings regulation closer to the operators outside Lagos and Abuja.
“Already Port-Harcourt takes care of the South east and South south buyers and are looking at opening a regional office in Enugu for the Southeast.
“We are looking at another one in either Maiduguri or Yola for the Northeast, Ilorin for the Middle-Belt and Uyo or Calabar for the South south.”
Nuhu also expressed the need for manpower development in the sector which he said, was necessary to bolster healthy competition.
He said the agency will partner airline operators to train pilots and engineers, so that they can be at the same level with their global counterparts.
The Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Hon. Nnolim Nnaji, said the committee was at the agency to find out the level of implementation of the 2020 Budget, noting that NCAA performed well during the COVID-19 pandemic.