Okorocha Commends NAMA for Airspace Safety

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) has been applauded for effectively enhancing the safety of air travel within the nation’s airspace.

Imo State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha gave this known during the recently concluded Airspace Managers’ Forum, which held in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
He expressed delight that through its commitment to excellent service delivery, NAMA has attracted a lot of goodwill to the country.

“Because of the strategic role played by the agency, I can simply define Aviation as NAMA and NAMA as Aviation,” he said.

Okorocha, who was once a Board Chairman of the agency however expressed concern that due to the invisible but critical nature of its services, “NAMA does all the work, yet it is the least recognised in the system.”

He revealed that as part of efforts to fast-track the takeoff of Imo International Cargo Airport in Owerri in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Transportation, the state government recently awarded contracts for the construction of some airport structures including a perimeter fence round the facility to forestall security breaches along the runway.

Earlier in an address, the acting Managing Director of NAMA, Emma Anasi said: “The essence of the quarterly Airspace Managers’ forum was for top echelon of the agency including Airspace Managers across the nation’s airports to brainstorm on critical issues of civil aviation and also design a road map for enhancing safety of air navigation in the country.”

He expressed gratitude to governor for extending a 33KVA line to the airport, which he hoped would reduce the agency’s burden of running its navigational aids permanently on generators, even as he solicited the governor’s support in the provision of mobility to ensure prompt response to pilot requests and also ease operational logistics around the airport.

Meanwhile, in preparation for the commencement of Aeronautical Information Services (AIS) automation, NAMA has embarked on the training of various categories of personnel in order to build adequate capacity needed for its deployment.

The agency said already the first batch of six personnel have proceeded to Frankfurt, Germany for a three-week Train-the-Trainer Course on Map/Chart/e-AIP Publication spanning from July 18 to August 5, 2016. The next batch of 12 trainees is billed to also undergo training in Germany between August 15 to September 2, 2016 ahead of the deployment of Aeronautical Fixed Telecom Network (AFTN)/ ATS Message Handling System (AMHS) in Lagos and Kano which would be networked to other airports in the country using the VSAT Network.

In a statement, NAMA acting Managing Director, stated that the above operator’s trainings to be conducted by Avitech GMBH at the company’s factory in Germany are critical components of the AIS Automation Project targeted at giving trainees the needed exposure to handle the complex situations associated with the project, stressing that upon their return, it is hoped that they would drive down the process by training others.

Anasi at a recent AIS Day celebration in Lagos had expressed determination of the agency to ensure speedy completion of the AIS Automation project in view of the centrality of the project to the success of the ongoing global migration from Terrestrial Based Navigation to Satelite Based Navigation (PBN).