Nigeria Climbs to Step Three in Global Aviation Safety Rating

Chinedu Eze

The Nigerian aviation has climbed up to step three in global safety rating and it is now among the world leaders in air safety.

This was disclosed monday by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), which described the high rating as Level 3 State Safety Programme (SSP).

By the rating, NCAA said Nigeria has therefore joined countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom and other highly rated countries in that category.

“This categorisation is dependent on the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which tracks the SSP implementation process of member-states via its Integrated Safety Trend Analysis and Reporting System (iSTARS).

“Member states in tandem therefore deploy this platform to undertake Gap Analysis, define their action plans and benchmark their progress,” NCAA said in a statement signed by its spokesman, Sam Adurogboye.

The regulatory authority said only two member countries: Australia and Sri Lanka have achieved full implementation of the SSP, according to ICAO records, adding that Nigeria is striving to achieve Level 4 of the safety rating, which would be attained 100 per cent by the end of 2017.

“The State Safety Programme process is inaugurated in member countries in compliance with the ICAO requirements as contained in Annex 19 on safety management.

“Consequently, Nigeria’s advanced level has put its SSP implementation process amongst states that have defined an action plan for all non-implemented Gap questions. In other words, Nigeria has completed its Gap Analysis, implemented 43.6 per cent of the required SSP tasks. In addition, the country has developed a detailed action plan for the accomplishment of the outstanding tasks with an established and approved timeline,” NCAA explained.

It noted that in pursuance of the above, Nigeria has commenced the implementation of the SSP processes and has achieved several milestones, which include the completion of the SSP Gap Analysis and the establishment of the implementation plan approved by the Director General of NCAA.

The authority also disclosed that other completed SSP tasks include the official authorisation of the Director General of NCAA as the accountable executive of the SSP and the designation of the NCAA as the placeholder organisation of the SSP in Nigeria by the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika.

“The approval and publication of the State Safety Policy Statement, the Enforcement Policy in an SSP-SMS environment including Nigeria’s Voluntary and Confidential Reporting System, among others, are among the tasks that have been concluded.

“The ICAO Aviation Safety Plan (GASP) has recognised the relevance of establishing and maintaining fundamental safety oversight systems as a prerequisite to the full implementation of an SSP,” NCAA said.

It noted that member states with robust safety oversight system had been called upon to progress towards full implementation of State Safety Programme (SSP).

NCAA further explained that an SSP is an integrated set of regulations and activities aimed at improving aviation safety, which would be monitored through Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach (CMA) after such a state has achieved an Effective Implementation (EI) of over 60 per cent.

According to NCAA, it is required that states that have achieved EI levels of over 60 per cent should endeavour to fully implement SSP by 2019.

Nigeria achieved an EI Level of 67.36 percent during the immediate past ICAO Audit in March 2016, which is above world average of 63.54 per cent.

While congratulating NCAA for the high safety rating of the industry internationally, an operator said the regulatory authority should concentrate now on how to make airline operation in Nigeria profitable in order to ensure continuity and progress in the industry.