The Federal Government has given approvals worth N45.3 billion to the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) for the upgrade of its facilities nationwide.
There are strong indications that the agency may increase its charges to its clients; airlines and helicopter companies very soon, but said this would only happen after the completion of the various upgrades nationwide.
The Acting Managing Director, of NAMA, Mr. Lawrence Pwajok revealed this to journalists in Lagos over the weekend in an interaction.
- According to Pwajok, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) gave approval of N13 billion for the safe tower project.
He said this is for the upgrade of safe tower systems for Lagos, Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt, stressing that the project included Air Traffic Management Systems (ATMS), communication systems, surveillance components, and aero metrological components to provide real-time weather to the ATC in the four international airports.
Details of the Project
He declared that the project was all-inclusive, covering the entire requirements for the provision of airdrome and ground control at the four international airports.
- According to him, the project was ongoing with the installation of upgrades of hardware and software at the Lagos Airport. At the same time, the team would move to Abuja, Kano, and Port Harcourt for the continuation of the projects in the next few months.
- The other major project he mentioned was the upgrade of the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON), which he said is worth N23 billion for software and hardware upgrade, training, and provision of a maintenance agreement for nine radars covering the entire country.
- He explained that N17 billion of the N23 billion was for system upgrades in the radar itself.
He said NAMA was upgrading to a Top Sky radar system from Euroca C, which it had been using since October 2010 when the project was commissioned by President Goodluck Jonathan.
He described the Top Sky as a state-of-the-art radar system, which is currently in use in Europe and any other developed aviation country around the world.
He explained further that the remaining N5 billion is for the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) system that connects the nine radar stations in Nigeria and overlapping to neghbouring countries.
More on VSAT
Pwajok emphasized that the VSAT conveys data from all nine locations, which include Bafarawa, Maiduguri, Ilorin, Port Harcourt, Abuja, and Bubura among others to Kano and Lagos, while also giving a complete picture of the coverage of Nigeria through monitoring and controlling.
- Besides, he mentioned the multelateration of low-flying helicopters in the Gulf of Guinea as another major project.
- He stated that the project was worth $12.9 million (N.3 billion in today’s black market) as of the time it was approved by FEC.
He added: “These are very heavy investments that are being made with the whole objective to enhance safety, efficiency, security, and the economy of operations in Nigeria. A couple of other projects that I cannot put figures to right now are also ongoing.
- “TRACON was commissioned in October 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan and we had a five years support services and maintenance agreement from 2010 and by December 2014, it expired. Ever since then, Nigerian engineers have been managing the system independently.
- “So, I want to say we have developed the capacity, maintenance, and sustenance of the system. the hardware, we require from Thales of France is basically the replacement of spares or modules, but for technical maintenance and operation of the system is between the Nigerian air traffic engineers and air traffic controllers. I want to commend these two professionals for their exceptional level of performance, dedication, and sacrifice.
- “I am sure the Thales never believed we could make the system function without them. We were paying millions of euros to maintain the support services agreement, but that has been saved. A whole lot of money has been saved in terms of maintenance.”
Possible Increase in Charges
Pwajok also hinted at a possible increase in charges to its clients, especially the airlines and helicopter companies.
According to him, NAMA charges were the lowest anywhere in the world at present.
- For instance, he explained that helicopters only pay the sum of N3,500 as charges to the agency while airlines pay the sum of N50,000 for a Boeing 737 aircraft.
- He explained that the agency would review its charges upward, but said this would only happen after the upgrade of its equipment nationwide, which he said had reached several stages of completion.
- But he cautioned that the whole essence of the deployment of the state-of-the-art equipment was for enhanced safety, efficiency, and the economy of flight operations.
He said: “So, we have tried to avoid the issue of an increase in charges. Helicopters barely pay N3,500 per flight and I tell you that is one of the global minimums. People have told us to increase our charges, but we want to increase our services before we look at an increase in charges. We know the difficulties the airlines are passing through and they might simply pass the charges to passengers.
- “So, as a government agency, we are not having the best of times, but we are working hard to ensure that there is efficiency in the service and we hope based on that there will be an increase in operations and revenue will increase. Increasing the charges will be the last resort.
- “We are conscious of cost recovery, but we are in a delicate industry that is struggling. We don’t want to add burdens without increasing the facilities. When we complete the deployment, we will look at that aspect because the government also needs to recover costs.”