As the Nigerian aviation industry is set to undergo the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in the next two weeks, Daily Trust examines the level of preparedness of relevant aviation agencies towards ensuring a successful outing.
The Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) which was launched in 1999 by ICAO has become a yardstick for measuring the performance of a country’s aviation industry in terms of compliance with the best safety standards.
USOAP promotes global aviation safety through regular auditing of safety oversight systems of ICAO member states, assessment of their safety oversight capability and their level of implementation of ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices.
The audit is done from time to time by the organisation with the objective of ensuring that countries continue to maintain the highest standards set as far as safety is concerned. This is the audit that Nigeria aviation industry would undergo on March 14 which has thrown the industry into frenzy.
Daily Trust reports that though there had been audits of the industry in the past which the country has undergone and passed, the affected agencies are not putting anything to chance to scale the forthcoming audit.
Agencies affected in the forthcoming audit include the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NIMET), all doing their parts to make the exercise a huge success.
Already, Nigeria is a holder of the Category One safety certificate which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States awarded to it in 2010 and reassessed in 2014 which implies that the authority of US aviation was satisfied with the country’s meeting of International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) standards.
The USOAP audit to be conducted by ICAO is, however a more comprehensive audit which examines critical aspects of the nation’s aviation as they relate to safety. As a prelude to the audit, a team of ICAO visited the country sometime in September last year and gave the authorities a checklist which contains areas and loopholes that need to be filled to succeed in the audit.
The audit, it was gathered, is also a prelude to the certification of the nation’s major airports by ICAO as no Nigerian airport has been certified. The airports being targeted presently for certification are the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano and Port Harcourt International Airport.
As part of the preparation for the audit, the Director General of the NCAA, Capt. Mukhtar Usman, inaugurated a task force made up of FAAN, NAMA and other relevant stakeholders.
It was gathered that some of the loopholes identified in the sector include the need to put some of the nation’s airports in order in terms of improving the airfield lighting, replacement of dead bulbs at some airport runways, as well as training of some workers.
As part of the preparation, NAMA recently held a runway safety workshop which the managing director, Engr. Ibrahim AbdulSalam, said has further prepared the nation for the ICAO Universal Safety Oversight Audit of next month. He also expressed optimism that as fallout of the workshop, Nigeria would have developed the required expertise to be able to ensure collaborative effort among stakeholders responsible for runway safety at the four major airports in the country.
On the part of FAAN it has commenced the installation of airfield lighting at 13 airports across the country with that of Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar test-run last week.
According to him, while that of Calabar is working perfectly, others have reached advanced stages of completion.
The airfield lighting is expected to enhance safety at the airports and it is also part of the requirements for their certification ahead of the audit.
Some of the airports already have airfield lighting, but the authority needs to replace some dead bulbs.
Managing Director of FAAN, Engr. Saleh Dunoma, who spoke with our correspondent shortly before embarking on an inspection of some of the ongoing construction works ahead of the audit assured that all the loopholes identified by ICAO would have been filled before the audit period.
On his part, NCAA spokesman, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, said audit is not new in the industry, adding that the forthcoming one would come and go without any hitch.
“We are used to it. In any case, in audit, they would give you a checklist of what you should do,” the spokesman said.
(Culled from www.dailytrust.com.ng)
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