The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) is set to commence the implementation of the new Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations (NCARs) and has called for stakeholders’ reviews and contributions.
A circular made available to some select aviation journalists by the agency gave the stakeholders and the public till March 21, 2023, to formally make their contributions to the new Act 2022.
More details: The circular, which was signed by the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Capt. Musa Nuhu indicated that the regulatory agency had set up an implementation committee for that purpose.
According to Nuhu, the committee will address the contributions and reviews of all stakeholders was set up in accordance with Part 1.7 of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Regulations 2015.
He said that the review and eventual implementation would bring the regulations in tandem with Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) as contained in the latest amendment of the Annexes to the Convention on the International Civil Aviation signed in Chicago in 1944 and include some pertinent national issues. Part of the circular said:
- “All comments and responses received by the Regulations Committee Rulemaking Working Group 2022 in accordance with Section 3.7 of the NCAA Approved Rulemaking Process Policy and Procedures Manual (RPPPM). Kindly note that all proposals shall be submitted no later than March 21st, 2023.”
The circular stated that the proposals could be submitted through emails, hand delivery or courier to the DGCA through the Chairman of the regulation committee.
What you should know: President Muhammadu Buhari had in August 2022, assented to the new Civil Aviation Regulations 2022 and was gazetted by the Supreme Court.
Earlier in the year, Nuhu decried the contributions of stakeholders to the new regulations, saying it was “too poor,” even though the regulatory agency made it public and distributed such to all stakeholders.
He had declared that professionals outside the aviation industry had contributed more to the development of aviation policy than players in the sector. He said:
- “When the Ministry collates them, put them into a document, there will be a stakeholders conference to look and review and make necessary inputs to the document and adopt the document, which will seek the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval and becomes legally binding on everybody, but we all need to play our part and to be honest, the response from the industry extremely poor.
- “We complain, this is not working, that is not working, but people have been given an opportunity, all of us, correspondents, pilots, engineers, ground agents, airlines, ground handlers, everybody, but nobody. Very few people have made contributions.
- “Surprisingly, people outside the industry have made significant contributions more than the people in the industry. We say it is our industry and we are not making any effort to make an input to ensure that we have an industry that we will all be proud of.”